Safe Space

History

Safe Space was created in the 1991 by a group of Resident Assistants. The RAs saw a need to bring awareness about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community to the University of Texas at Austin. It was officially became a part of the University Residence Hall Association on April 30, 2001.

PROPOSAL TO CONNECT SAFE SPACE TO URHA

The following proposal was submitted to the URHA Legislative Council on April 30, 2001 and passed with 10 affirmatives and 1 abstention. The proposal was developed by Daniel Ostick (URHA Advisor and Safe Space Advisor), Erin Smith (URHA President), and Colin Cunliff (Safe Space Executive Board Member), with input by other Safe Space and URHA Officers.

The following items will become part of the URHA Constitution, as well as the Safe Space Guidelines.

  1. Safe Space will be a committee of URHA.
  2. Safe Space will send one representative to each Legislative Council meeting. This representative may be a different individual at each meeting.
  3. One URHA Exec Board Member will attend each Safe Space meeting. This representative may be a different individual at each meeting. Meetings will be differentiated from programs by the executive officers of each group.
  4. The primary focus of Safe Space must be to address residence hall students' needs.
  5. All officers of Safe Space must be current residents in the Division of Housing and Food Service. Members of Safe Space may live off-campus.
  6. Any Safe Space programs not focusing on residence hall students must be held outside the residence halls and may not use residence hall resources.
  7. Safe Space will be considered in the development of the URHA budget.