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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Ensuring a welcoming and secure environment for Oregon State University's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is the first priority of the campus' new coordinator for LGBT Outreach and Services.

Before coming to OSU this fall, Steven Leider worked for nine years at the University of California at Los Angeles' LGBT Campus Resource Center.

"Oregon State University's program is a unique model in that the resource center and the programming it offers to the campus community are run entirely by students at a professional level," Leider said. "Combining the excitement of such an experiment with the professionalism of the students makes this job very exciting," Not only is the program itself unique, but in October of this year, OSU President Ed Ray signed a charter on behalf of university with the Pride Center, guaranteeing that the center will be a permanent campus establishment.

Terryl Ross, director of OSU's Office of Community and Diversity, said the charter contains language that charges the university to work with the leadership of the Pride Center and the communities that they both serve. "The charter secures the Pride center's future by unambiguously integrating and valuing it as part of the identity of the university itself," Ross said.

Leider's primary focus at OSU will be to supervise the campus' student-run Pride Center staff. At similar centers across the nation, LGBT centers are run by professionals with degrees, rather than by students, he said.

Leider's management style revolves around listening to students and offering suggestions and providing ideas.

"I'm here to make suggestions, rather than control everything," he pointed out. "I think that was my strong point. I didn't want to come in and change everything right away; I believe it's important to ask questions first.

"The other difference that makes this such a cool program is that the Pride Center here is open all the time, and always staffed. There are only around 200 universities that have LGBT offices that are open all the time and are staffed full-time, like ours."

Leider is also looking at starting an OSU LGBT alumni group. He believes such an organization could provide former students with a way to reconnect with OSU on a level that didn't exist for them when they were students at the university.

He is working further on developing financial support for LGBT students.

"One problem facing students who want to 'come out' in college is that often their parents aren't supportive," he said. "They believe that somehow the school is responsible for turning their children gay, and so they refuse to keep paying tuition."

While there are numerous financial options available to students at OSU, individuals don't always know how to seek out information.

"I want funds to be available for those students who lose the financial support of their families when they come out or are outed, so that they don't feel like their only choice is to drop out. I don't want anyone to have to quit school because of coming out," Leider said.

A fund-raiser to benefit the Pride Center is already planned. The Portland Gay Men's Chorus will be giving a concert with proceeds going to the Pride Center, the Corvallis chapter of Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays and the Valley AIDS Information Network. The holiday-themed concert is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 11, at the Corvallis First United Methodist Church at Monroe Avenue and 11th Street. The concert will feature Hanukkah, Christmas, and winter music, along with comedy skits.