GSA Plans to Poll Members About College's Discrimination

The Gay Students Association (GSA), at the request of Dean Fox, will survey its members by mail to determine how their sexual orientation has influenced their treatment at the University, Michael G. Colantuono '83, secretary of the GSA and initiater of the survey, said yesterday.

The two-page questionnaire asks respondents to relate any incidents of discrimination in which they were victims of other students, the University Health Service (UHS), members of the Harvard police, admissions officers and all other Harvard personnel.

Colantuono said he will report the findings of the survey to Fox and to the University community but in an abridged form.

Naming Names

"Dean Fox will get the names of any people involved in incidents with a member of the gay community. However, I see no need for anyone else to know names," Colantuono added.

Colantuono said he conceived the survey while serving on a subcommittee of the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) that discussed the problems of gay students at the University.

"We felt that we had to take some real action, do something concrete, as well as make verbal protestations against discrimination," Colantuono said.

After ruling in favor of conducting the survey, the CHUL subcommittee reported to Fox, who then offered to finance it.

Help

"It's great to have the University help us," Colantuono said, adding. "For once it is not a confrontation."

Colantuono said the survey will be confidential. "I am doing the mailing myself and will give the results directly to Dean Fox," he added.

Fox was unavailable for comment.

"People in the administration don't know what gays have to face; they lack information. This survey should help to change that," Benjamin H. Schatz '81 former president of the GSA, said yesterday.

"This is a milestone. By promoting this survey, the University is reaching its hand out toward the gay community. We have to take it," Schatz added.