Blegen House Update

As promised, I want to use this blog as a way to be transparent about the LGBTQ Center and Blegen House situation.

A decision was made recently that I would like to share with everyone - the LGBTQ Center will not be moving back to Blegen House. This was decided mostly because of the college's financial situation right now. Like most of America, we have been hit hard by this recession, and the college needs to cut back on many of the capital projects that were originally planned. The Blegen House upgrades to make the house wheelchair accessible is just one of those projects that was cut. Also - we have received much positive feedback from students about our current location. Being in the college center has made this a more convenient place for students to visit and attend programs.

So what will happen to the LGBTQ Center? As of now, we will remain where we are indefinitely. This is not a permanent solution for us, since we still have many materials that can not fit in CC 235 (especially our 1700+ book library collection). We will be using storage places accross campus for the time being, and will work towards a more permanent larger space that remains in a central location on campus. (This will probably happen once the bookstore moves out of the college center and many offices get moved around.) We will do our best to continue computer access to our library until we find our permanent location.

What will happen to Blegen House? Blegen House will go back to being a single-family residence for faculty, staff, or administrators of Vassar. Details are still being worked out for how quickly this will happen, but we will most likely be moving all our stuff out of there over winter break.

In general, I think this is great news! Most students seem very happy about our current location, and our attendance at events and the center in general has drastically improved since last year. Feel free to leave comments to let us know what you think about our current location!