Ashland University is home to many traditions from the eagle statues and painted rocks around campus to the more recent Banana Splittin’ tradition brought back last fall. AU has a rich history to be proud of. But one tradition in particular has gone unnoticed by many.

Attempts to bring organizations focused on the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community to AU’s campus started as early as 1995 with a group called Open Doors. There were also attempts to start groups in 1996, 1999, 2008 and 2010. Now in 2016, students are once again attempting to bring a group that celebrates diversity and the LGBT community to Ashland.

Joe Farber is one of three students working on gaining a provisional charter for the group Eagles for PRIDE, Promoting Respect for Individual Dignity Everywhere. He explained that he has wanted to start a group for LGBT students since his freshman year but felt discouraged when others told him about the various groups that struggled in the past.

“ I really like the small campus size [of AU],” said Farber. “But it doesn’t really fit my social needs sometimes because there aren’t many people [here] who are of my persuasion. It’s not a very LGBTQ friendly campus. There’s no real [LGBT] community here.”

A new president, a new vice president of Student Affairs and the religious group that sparked student protests last semester gave Farber the push he needed to try to start a group. He asked Bailey Fullwiler to help him with the provisional charter application. Sean Honaker, who had separately submitted a provisional charter application for an LGBT focused group, joined them soon after.

“Though I am graduating in May, I have been helping with the approval process, assisting in the brainstorming for the layout of the organization and reaching out to others who may be interested in involvement,” said Fullwiler.

Director of Student Life, Nicole Dyer, explained that while the Activities Budgeting and Chartering Committee (ABCC) and Student Senate have both recommended Eagles for PRIDE for a provisional charter, the group is under review by upper-level administration.

According to Executive Officer of Student Affairs and Student Life for student senate, Kelly Ranttila, student senate passed Eagles for PRIDE’s charter unanimously.

“This is something [student senate] thinks is important,” said Ranttila. “There are people [on student senate] who don’t agree with the club but still feel that it is important. Ashland is a pretty conservative campus and we pride ourselves on being a conservative campus but being open to more diverse ideas and concepts is important. There are people who maybe do feel marginalized on a more conservative Christian campus but still like this environment and they should be welcomed just as much as anyone else.”

Craig Hovey, who is serving alongside James Olive as one of the group’s advisors, believes that Eagles for PRIDE receiving a charter wouldn’t necessarily mean that AU endorses an LGBT lifestyle. Hovey explained that several traditionally religious colleges including Notre Dame, Calvin College and Fuller Seminary all have LGBT groups because these places don’t view having a group on campus as taking any kind of political or moral stand.

“I like the freedom and openness of Ashland,” said Hovey. “There’s a vibrant Christian ethos here, but it’s not a top-down ethos that imposes uniformity. I love that.”

Hovey believes that a group such as Eagles for PRIDE will fit quite well within the university ideology.

Discussion of Eagles for PRIDE was put on the agenda for a board of trustees meeting, but the issue was tabled.

“The chair, Lisa Miller, who is one of our board of trustees members, said that it was not in the purview of their committee to discuss it and that they would not take it to full board,” said Ranttila. “James Coyne, the president of student senate said that it would be going to [President Campo’s] office and that the decision would be made from there.”

At this point, no one in the group is certain about where Eagles for PRIDE is within the chartering process. To date, the most successful attempt at a group that deals with LGBT issues was the 2010 group called Respect.

According to Tory Lowe, who served as the first president of Respect, the group was granted a provisional charter by student senate.

“One of my friends and I believed that there was a need to have a gay-straight alliance at Ashland,” said Lowe. “We reached out to fellow students and found there was interest in the group and so we started the process of getting a [provisional] charter.”

Brian Stevens, another member of Respect, felt that their attempt made it further than prior groups before because of a few different factors including the support of many faculty members and the group’s willingness to work with the university.

“We gathered a pretty good following of students,” said Stevens. “We had like 200 people on our email list and a normal meeting would bring in a dozen to a couple dozen students.”

Stevens mentioned that the group had to jump through some hoops during its provisional charter. They were told that their mission statement had to be on all of their flyers, which according to Stevens, was something that no other group on campus had to submit to. He explained that they had to take down and replace all of their flyers in a single night in order to have a meeting the next day because of this stipulation put upon the group.

According to notes from a board of trustees Student Life Committee meeting that took place May 7, 2010, there was some concern with the mission statement submitted in the charter application for Respect. It was thought that the group was too focused on issues of sexual identity and orientation and that Respect should instead focus on “wider issues pertaining to tolerance and acceptance of human diversity.”

“We were told that we had to change our mission statement and our bylaws, the whole idea of the group, to be human rights and just human rights,” said Stevens.

Early on, Respect members were warned that their group might be shut down if it seemed their purpose was too similar to an existing organization. Stevens, and others involved, worried that the changes proposed by the board of trustees student life committee would make them too much like other groups such as the Ashland Center for Nonviolence.

“Whether or not it was the right decision in the end, we said that we could not change the group,” said Stevens. “We really had a lot of faculty support during this whole thing. It’s just that certain things came up at the time that, you know, certain people maybe just weren’t ready for it. It’s too bad that it came down like it did.”

Fullwiler explained that Eagles for PRIDE differs from Respect in their aim and focus.

“We have changed the way we presented the organization to be about diversity in general instead of lgbtq focused,” said Fullwiler. “We have initiated conversations with the vice president and director of student affairs. In addition, we have had conversations with individuals from residence life and religious life. By discussing the desire and need for this organization, learning more about the process and building relationships with faculty and staff we have created a much stronger initiative than any year before.”

No official decision has been made at this point, but members of Eagles for PRIDE have been told to expect a final decision on the group’s provisional charter from the president’s office in the near future.