Safe campuses out west

The University of Western Sydney has started training staff and students to combat homophobia on its campuses, the first tertiary institution in Sydney to adopt the Ally program.
Vice-Chancellor Janice Reid last week launched the program, which has already attracted 35 people from across all six UWS campuses to sign up.
Reid was presented with a rainbow flag by the queer students collective, which she unfurled and wrapped around her shoulders.
Penrith campus queer officer David Lenton said those visible signals from senior staff were just as important as progressive policies.
UWS has rules as far as anti-discrimination, but there’s a huge step between that and knowing that people are prepared to be openly aligned with queer students, he said.
There’s a huge stereotype of Western Sydney being anti-queer, but it’s not necessarily true -“ there’s a lot of stigma on both sides.
All six UWS campuses have queer spaces, but Lenton said anti-queer name-calling was still frequent on some campuses.
UWS senior education officer and Ally program coordinator Tim Sanderson said the program would emphasise visibility because no student should have to put up with that behaviour.
There certainly have been issues in the past, regrettable incidents. University is where people come out for the first time, so it needs to be safe, it needs to be an affirming environment, Sanderson said.
Gen Y seem to have different view about themselves and sexuality; they seem to be much more informed, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a safe world to be in.
Sanderson said there was an online service for queer students to support each other, but the Ally posters, door stickers, staff badges and mugs would send a clear statement to all students that it was okay to be queer on campus.
The idea of an Ally is that they are not necessarily GLBT-identifying, he said.
We give them information for the kinds of issues queer students face at university, like coming out, and resource lists for who you can refer people to for health and counselling.
The Ally program has also been implemented at the Universities of New England, Western Australia and Queensland. The University of Sydney is also considering the program.