Identity Politics, Institutional Response, and Cultural Negotiation: Meanings of a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Office on Campus. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

This study examined the social and political climate surrounding the opening of a controversial gay/lesbian/bisexual support office at an anonymous midwestern public research university. In addition to analyses of university mission statements, plans, and policies, other "diversity" literature, and campus and local newspapers, fieldwork included twenty interviews with faculty, staff, and students on campus. The study explored the university's view of itself as a liberal island in the midst of a conservative environment. It identified tensions that exist when the stated policy of diversity is not matched by diversity in practice and the inherent contradictions when discourse takes place in an "environment of disacknowledgment." It analyzed some of the rhetoric used in support of and against the establishment of the proposal. It is concluded that significant insights into academic and social change can be gained by paying attention to how the practices of identity politics interact with official policies and practices. (Contains 31 references.) (CH)