BGLTQ Office Renovations Scheduled to Complete in November

Come November, the fences behind Grays Hall will be taken down to reveal two newly renovated spaces for College diversity offices.

The Office of BGLTQ Student Life and the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion will share the new handicap-accessible basement beneath the freshman dorm, built in 1863. The offices are currently located in temporary spaces at 7 Linden St.

“We are looking forward to relocating both the BGLTQ and Diversity Inclusion offices into newly renovated, accessible space in Grays Hall,” Roland S. Davis, associate dean for diversity and inclusion, wrote in an emailed statement.

The renovated basement will feature a kitchen, lounge, and library. Earlier estimates for the renovations had pinned a completion date of mid-October.

“We anticipate that the offices will begin moving in toward the end of the calendar year,” Davis added. “We are excited to build upon the great services these offices provide for our student population in their new location.”

Davis joined the College earlier this month after a national search and an almost year-long vacancy in the College’s diversity dean post. Davis oversees the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; the Office of BGLTQ Student Life; and the Harvard College Women’s Center.

The College appointed a new director for the five-year-old BGLTQ Office, Sheehan D. Scarborough ’07, in February.

“This is a really wonderful moment for Harvard College,” Scarborough said of the new space in March. “They’ve invested so much in this space and now we get to be the ones to use it and make it the best that it can possibly be.”

Kirsi Anselmi-Stith ’18, a co-chair of the Queer Students and Allies, said that although the building will mainly be used by administrators, the BGLTQ office has offered to let the organization use the space to hold meetings.

“They are giving us the opportunity to be able to host our meetings there,” Anselmi-Stith said. “We’re very excited for the space and we appreciate the Quoffice pushing this forward and getting us a space on the yard.”

—Staff writer Madeleine Nakada can be reached at madeleine.nakada@thecrimson.com.