Finding a full-time person to meet the needs of Iowa State’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has become a priority for the dean of students, officials said.

The LGBT Student Services Office is currently staffed by a part-time graduate assistant and two undergraduate assistants, making it the only office within dean of students office that does not have a full-time staff member, said R. Ellen Semran, LGBT student services coordinator.

Nancy Evans, LGBTSS Advisory Board member, said lack of money has created staffing problems.

“Our part-time graduate assistant coordinator is very overworked,” said Evans, professor of educational leadership and policy studies. “We’re not able to do the amount of programming we’d like for the whole campus because of time limitations.”

She said students often bring complex issues to LGBTSS, which should be handled by a highly skilled person.

“We do understand the budgetary situation, that has been a block to moving forward,” Evans said.

She said funding this position is a high priority on Dean of Students Pete Englin’s budget request.

Englin said while it will be hard to find the funds, he’s confident it can be done.

“We’ve been cutting positions for four years, not adding them,” he said. “It’s going to take an allocation of new funds or reallocation of existing funds.”

Englin said the dean of students office will look at every possibility.

LGBTSS sponsors a speakers program as well as the Safe Zone program, which is aimed at increasing the visibility of allies on campus, Semran said.

“Over the last couple years, we’ve just seen a need for more educational outreaches,” she said.

In addition, LGBTSS runs the ISU Lavender Graduation Program and the Small Victories Celebration.

Semran said it is hard to meet the needs of the LGBT community without a full-time staff member.

“If we could have a full-time director who this is their primary responsibility, it would show the LGBT community is valued on this campus,” Semran said.

She said the idea of a full-time LGBTSS staff member has been around for a number of years, although it had not been publicly discussed until the President’s Forum on Diversity on Nov. 2.