One of COSO's accomplishments in Curriculum and Education development has been to develop and offer the course MDS123: An Introduction to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies. This course is offered by the Division of Sociology and Sociology.  Another group of courses include broad on gay and lesbian topics in literature offered by the Department of English and the Department of Foreign Languages.  Additional courses offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels include Human Sexuality, offered by the Health Sciences Division.

This committee has an ongoing process to surveying current West Virginia University courses for their potential in contributing to a possible minor in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies. The criteria for course inclusion is that at least 30% of the course content be dedicated to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and/or Transgender issues.

Campus Climate

This committee works with Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Mountaineers (student group) to plan and coordinate programming for student events.  Other duties include promotion of issues of inclusion, safety and diversity recognition through campus events.  This committee is also directs the nomination and selection process for the COSO Advocacy Award.  An article on the first recipient, Rosemary Srebalus is available here: News Release.

A nomination form for the COSO Award is available at COSO AWARD.

Additional projects include advocacy for GLBT affirmative campus policy as well as local, state and national legislative reforms.  Latest endeavors include work with the ACLU and HRC to promote the implementation of domestic partnership benefits on campus as well as promotion of state hate crimes and workplace / housing non-discrimination bills.

Community Service

One of the main projects in this area include collaborations with Caritas / Colligo House, a local charity which serves clients in the North Central West Virginia region affected by HIV/AIDS and provides transitional housing and life skills assistance funded by HUD.  COSO Co-Chair John Hagen currently serves on their Board of Directors as Vice President.  Additional projects include work with the WVU Center for Civic Engagement and other volunteer groups on campus.