When students talk about diversity on campus, we often talk in terms of racial diversity, which is clearly deficient on our campus. However, this dialogue overlooks a major factor of campus diversity–the LGBT community.

In light of the recent talks given by Dan Savage and Randy Potts, we at The Bucknellian feel compelled to congratulate the campus community on addressing these issues head on and bringing them to the forefront.

In the past, issues of gender orientation and association have seemed to fly under the radar on campus. Now, thanks to the outstanding work being done by LGBT office, the fight for awareness has turned into a movement for action.

With movements such as Fran’s House and the newfound ability to apply for gender neutral housing, it seems that this university has taken a major step in the right direction. These types of projects have been talked about often in the past, but no longer are they just talk.

What’s more, the LGBT office is not the only part of our community taking action. This week, Chi Phi Fraternity brought Randy Potts to campus and Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, in conjunction with FLAG, brought Dan Savage.

This semester seems to mark a major milestone for our university. Arguably for the first time ever, we as students are realizing and taking action for a minority, yet significant, group of people on campus. When multiple organizations outside of LGBT are bringing in speakers and spreading awareness, we know that we have taken a significant step in the right direction.

Hopefully, we as a community can continue to make our campus more open and accessible to the LGBT community because, although we have moved forward, we as a student body still have a long way to go.

One wonders if this University will ever completely be a safe space for all students. We certainly hope so, but for this goal to be realized, the students of this campus need to take positive action. Words can only go so far to address a problem-–only through student-driven, communal action can we make a significant change.