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Members of the ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ community got their first look at the university’s new Gender & LGBTQIA Center on Tuesday during a grand opening ceremony that included a “State of the LGBTQIA Community” update from center director Matthew Antonio Bosch.

Bosch says the center, located in Moseley 211, is a place for conversation, community and caring.

“Caring matters,” Bosch emphasized in his remarks. “We want all students to feel safer, to be more visible, to academically succeed. You don’t get growth because of sameness, but rather because of contrast.”

The center’s mission is to advance education, student services and programs related to gender, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation. It also aims to serve as a primary point of contact for students to engage intellectually and socially around gender and LGBTQIA topics and identities, which Bosch said is important in fostering diversity and understanding.

“The importance is in people of differing viewpoints coming together to engage with one another in dialogue, to become vulnerable in our identities whether on the pro-side or the con-side,” he said. “The importance is in each of us admitting we don’t know what we don’t know, but we’re willing to try and see the other’s point. Why? Because caring matters.

“It’s what brings students every year here to ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ and it’s what keeps students at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ.”