Dominican: Common Ground at DU

DU Gay Community Feels Shadowed
By Angela Romano
romaange@my.dom.edu
Copy Editor

February 17, 2010

Common Ground’s mission “is to educate the Dominican Community on the history of the gay and lesbian community, and educate the campus on social and ethical issues that affect gay and lesbian students, faculty or staff and the LGBT community as a whole.”

Some members of Common Ground struggle to see this mission in affect.

John Werning transferred to Dominican from Blackburn College, which had only 600 students at the time of his enrollment. Despite the small size, his experience with Common Ground at Blackburn compared to his experience at Dominican is drastically different.

“At Blackburn I was the Vice President, treasurer, and public relations officer,” Werning said. Our group was active and we were constantly hosting events, having parties and fundraising. At Dominican I feel like it’s inactive and there is no effort put forth, so I’ve become uninvolved and uninterested.”

Meetings for Common ground take place in Lewis, usually in an isolated classroom.

“It’s unwelcoming,” Common Ground member Billy Heard said. “It feels like we’re not wanted. Our meetings are on the third fl oor, in the classroom at the end of the hall.”

Werning thinks things could change if there was a comfortable setting to have meetings. “At Blackburn we put forth effort,” Werning said. “We bought furniture, got a big group together and at the end of the day there were 20 to 30 members. We had a designated place to hang out and enjoy ourselves. It was a much better feel than hanging out in a classroom for 20 minutes about twice a month.”

Common Ground seems to be losing members and needs to make a change if old members are going to return.

Junior Wesley Scott has been attending meetings since last semester.

“I don’t think it’s effective as being a mediator between the homosexual community and the regular population,” Scott said. “It’s simply an inactive club that hasn’t made progress since I transferred here at the beginning of the year. Seeing that Dominican is a Liberal Arts University, I feel the club has done nothing out of the box and will always play it safe.” Scott feels that while other organizations on campus are constantly fundraising and involving themselves in the community, Common Ground doesn’t engage the student body.

“I feel that Dominican uses Common Ground as a crutch to say that they are accepting of homosexuals,” Scott said. I know there is always going to be that divide between homosexuals and the rest of the community and some more accepting than others, but I wish Common Ground was active in trying to break down that divide.”

Students not involved with Common Ground struggle to know what it is. Junior Christie Klinger expressed her confusion. “I’ve never heard of Common Ground,” Klinger said. “I didn’t think Dominican even had a gay or lesbian group.”

Lack of finances seems to be the answer to why Common Ground is at a standstill. Former President Vicki Whooper said: “To some degree I agree that Common Ground’s activity on campus has been minimal this past school year mainly due to finances. By not having enough funding limits the amount of things we were able to do.”

Scott and Werning agree that lack of finances shouldn’t be an issue. “There are several things you can do that don’t involve large sums of money,” Werning said. “It’s frustrating that money is the reason Common Ground is failing.”

Whooper sticks up for Common Ground. “Common Ground has come leaps and bounds since I was given the club back in 07,” Whooper said. “We’ve teamed up with residence life and have done several safe zone training sessions, as well as held events for national coming out day and a basket raffle. It saddens me that these comments are coming from club members.” It seems that several members of the gay community at Dominican won’t attend another meeting unless the group starts progressing.
“There is some obvious restrategizing that needs to happen,” Whooper said.