After semesters of careful planning and debate, students in the greek and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied (LGBTA) communities have developed educational programs to create safe space on campus.

Different organizations have stressed unity and alliance-forming programs for years, and now two of the biggest communities on campus are uniting to educate one another.

The program is comprised of four steps and includes all four greek organizations on campus: the Interfraternity Council (IFC), the governing body for fraternities; the Panhellenic Council (PHC), the governing body for sororities; the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), historically black fraternities and sororities; and the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), Allies President Sara Ryan said.

Allies is a Penn State organization that works to show its support for the LGBT community.

The steps include making personal contact with all chapters to identify allies and potential LGBTA members, and sponsoring chapter-specific, greek "straight talks."

The final step will be a community service project or philanthropy developed by the two communities.

"Straight talks" are presentations of LGBTA-related stories and resources used to educate those who have not had experience with the LGBTA community about the hardship members sometimes face, Ryan said.

She said all four greek councils accepted the proposal to allow the program to begin.

"Any steps we make at this point are big steps because we've never done anything like this before," Ryan said. "In a few years, there will be a major climate change on campus."

Allison Subasic, LGBTA Student Resource Center director, said the idea of bringing the two communities together is encouraging to all students involved.

"There's a lot of education that needs to be distributed in both organizations," she said. "Both sides have assumptions."

Subasic said the greek community might have assumptions about the number of LGBTA people within fraternities and sororities, while the LGBTA community may think of the greek community as unwelcoming.

The program is established to cater to the needs of people in both communities so they can be educated about the "realities" -- there are LGBTA people in the greek system, and they are welcomed into the organizations, she said.

Andrew Hackett, IFC president, said the new program is twofold.

"Its main purpose is to dispel stereotypes in both communities," he said. "We want to work on our side to educate the greek community about what it means to be LGBT to make it a more comfortable place."

Hackett said he hopes to see more LGBT people become active in Penn State greek chapters.

"We're seeing that diversity is an increasing trend," he said. "This is all a matter of making people aware so we don't have hate incidents, and we are, as a whole, more welcoming."

Irene McKenna, PHC executive vice president, agreed with Hackett's statements.

"It's important to be as accommodating as possible," she said. "Whatever Panhellenic Council can do to foster relationships with others in the community is really important."