Until this summer, Stern sophomore Mark Kania didn't tell anyone in the Stern School of Business that he was gay.
"I thought that there was no way that this was going to be okay," Kania said, adding that the overall climate at Stern for the LGBT community is not accepting.
But Kania and fellow Stern sophomore Dana Fennessey think it's time for the Stern School of Business to come out of the closet.
The two of them recently founded OutStern, the tentative name for a new LGBT organization at Stern. The group will begin trial status this spring. The club will bring together both gay students and their allies on campus in an attempt to create a more tolerant atmosphere within the school.
"We feel that if there is a group made available to LGBT business students, more of them will feel comfortable with being themselves," Kania said.
Fennessey and Kania decided to create the club after attending the Out for Undergraduate Business Conference in early October. After meeting students from other undergraduate institutions with on-campus clubs for LGBT students, Fennessey and Kania decided that the business school would benefit from such an organization. With the help of Stern senior Bernardo Teixeira, they were able to collect the 100 signatures necessary for the club to be considered by Susan Greenbaum, associate dean of the undergraduate college at Stern.
Greenbaum said she and Dean of the Undergraduate College Sally Blount-Lyon commend the group on their initiative.
"We are excited about the energy behind and support for this new club," Greenbaum said.
After her authorization, Fennessey and Kania sought support from Student Life, then presented their idea to the Stern Inter-Club Council for approval. The process went smoothly, but Fennessey and Kania were unsure about how the Stern community would receive an LGBT club after some experiences that they have had on campus.
Fennessey recalled a time when he was walking through the revolving doors of Tisch Hall, Stern's main building. As he entered the building, a male student turned to a female and said, "There's a flamer right there," gesturing toward Fennessey. Kania said that he also had negative experiences at Stern with people throwing around words like "gay" in a derogatory manner and using more offensive terms in reference to the LGBT community without even thinking about it. It was incidents like these that made Fennessey and Kania feel that such a club was necessary at Stern.
"We really want to make Stern known as a tolerant school," Fennessey said.
Aside from changing the climate at the business school, Fennessey and Kania hope that the club will educate LGBT students and allies on how to face issues that may come up in the workplace.
Teixeira is excited about the start of the club and looks forward to its trial status in the spring. He thinks that it will allow people in the business school to be more comfortable about their sexuality. Plus, he added, it will bring Stern "some much-needed flair!"
Tamara Gilkes is a staff writer. E-mail her at features@nyunews.com.
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