RYAN LOMBARDI: Well, If I click the right thing. 

SPEAKER: It works. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: OK. 

LIANA: There, it's recording now. 

SPEAKER: And then, Leanna can ask a question. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: And you'll keep that. You'll be able to keep that recording somehow? 

SPEAKER: Yes. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: OK. You know Zoom better than I do. 

LEANNA: [LAUGHING] OK, so I'm going to go ahead with the first question. What were the key moments for you in the founding of Loving House and, how were you involved in the process of its implementation? 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Sure, so it was really great to see these questions and to take a trip down memory lane. So this started in the fall of 2017-- two-thousand seventeen-- when a couple of student leaders approached me about their interest in establishing the Loving House. And I had worked with these student leaders, Ian Wallace and Joe Anderson, in particular, pretty closely, knew them really well. 

And so we had, I think initially just started by having a couple of conversations in my office about it. And I think they were feeling out my level of support. And right from the get-go I was enthusiastic and eager to partner with them and think about how we could bring this to fruition. 

Later that fall, they put resolutions through both the Residential Student Congress and the Student Assembly. Both passed resolutions I think in the month of November, if I remember correctly. And when those get submitted officially to the university, they go to the president. 

The president often will consult the respective vice president in that area. So the president consulted me on that. I expressed my support for moving in that direction. And then she responded affirmatively, too. 

So from that point, then, I helped to convene and to charge a working group of people that came together to really think about what this could look like and where it should be and all the logistics associated with creating the Loving House. So I charged that group. 

I wasn't in every meeting because I would just slow things down with my schedule. But it included students, faculty, and staff. So it was a really inclusive group of individuals that really worked through this collaboratively to figure out the best plan. 

That committee came back to me with the final recommendation to put it in Mews Hall, to open it in fall 2019, structured as it is, and which I then quickly approved. And they then spent-- so that was spring of 2018. And then it was-- so there was a year of prep to get things going and make sure that it was successful, if I'm remembering my dates correctly. 

LEANNA: Well, that was a fast turnover thing. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: It actually was. And I had been here about two years at that time. So fall of 2017, I started in the summer of 2015 working at Cornell. So I had been here about two years, just to give you a little frame of reference. So, yeah, we were able to turn it around pretty quickly, in a couple of years time. 

And I credit-- and this probably will bleed into some of your further questions-- but I really credit the students. Joe and Ian were terrific and really worked hard to get things going. 

SPEAKER: OK, I'm going to move on to the next question. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Please. 

LEANNA: So we understand that there was a long period of time between the creation of the program houses, LLC was open in 1994, which means that there were about 25 years in between the opening of Loving House and the EEC. So what was the key shift in the approval of the program houses on campus? 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Yeah, you know, I saw this question. I'm not sure how to answer it. There are different administrations over that time. And so that's probably, I would say, the biggest influence on program houses is who's in the administration. 

When I say the administration, students often think of the administration-- they use this term. But there's a president, of course. There's my role that focuses on student life. There's the provost that focuses on academics. There's a number of other vise presidents that have different responsibilities. So it's kind of a collective of the administration, I guess I would say. 

I don't think-- my impression, again, I just came in 2015. So I can't really speak to the 21 years prior to my arrival. So I don't I don't know why, maybe, there were no houses in between. I know there had been advocacy for an LGBTQ+-themed housing in that time frame. I'm not exactly sure why it wasn't met with success during that time. 

I did happen to speak with a Cornell alum after we approved or implemented-- actually, I think it was at the ribbon cutting-- who was just really excited. I didn't have a chance to ask him all the history about why it didn't go through in the past. But I don't know if it was politics at the time. I don't know if it's leadership at the time, the climate, the culture, acceptance of individuals. I just don't know. 

But I can assume it's probably a number of those things. But I will say, since I've been here, and that's a lot less of that time-- six years or so, the last six years, or the last three or so, when we implemented Loving House-- it was really just the students being able to share the story about why this was important and how they thought this would impact the community. 

And one of the things I often say to my colleagues or to alumni who might reach out to me is to say-- because they always-- they'll often talk about segregation when they think about program houses. And they'll say, oh, you do this, you do this. And I said, no that's not the way-- it's not the way I see this. 

I see this as people come to Cornell at different points in their life and at different places with where they are and their identity formation and their comfort and their confidence. And it doesn't mean that every student who identifies as LGBTQ is going to live in a Loving House. In fact, that would be impossible. But, in fact, there will be some students that really that space is going to be suitable for, given where they're at in their journey and in their process and in their own development. 

Just like, Leanna, you shared with me your desire to live in [INAUDIBLE] was about forming a community. And that was important to you at this particular moment when you were coming to Cornell this year, you've said. And next year, that going in a different direction, that's fine. And so the point is creating that option, in my mind, creating that option for students who in that moment in time, it's going to support them and it's going to be helpful for them. 

It doesn't suggest there's some kind of division or divide of an entire student population. So I really try and challenge alums when they push on that, or try to make those points, which doesn't happen a lot, I'll admit. But it happens occasionally. 

SPEAKER 2: I just want I want to thank you for that, just because I know it takes a lot to get all these things approved. So thank you for pushing for us. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Of course. You bet. 

LEANNA: OK I'm going to move on to the next question. So I think you partly answered this, but I'll ask it again. So why did you support and approve the creation of Loving House? What do you think the opening of Loving House means to the Cornell community? 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Yeah, so I'll just take it a little bit further. So my work as the head of Student Life for Cornell and in my role, we're not bureaucrats. We're educators. I study human development. I have-- my colleagues who work with me and myself, I have a doctorate. These are professional positions that really are thoughtful about what it means to develop as an adolescent, as a young adult, et cetera. 

And what we know is that one of the most important things for a student, for a young person to be able to do when they're in college is really develop confidence and a sense of self. And once they're able to do that successfully, they're going to be successful in lots of other endeavors-- their academic endeavors, their personal endeavors, all those types of things. 

So the work we think about is-- so I'm just putting a little bit of a theoretical framework on what we were talking about before-- creating spaces like the Loving House, where those students who that benefits, those-- I think it's about 30 or so residents capacity-- that will benefit from that and that will help them gain the confidence or get that stability in their life in that period, is only going to mean good things for the rest of their education and their life. 

And that's really what we focus on in Student Life is trying to create those conditions. And so that's why I supported that. And that's why I will always entertain similar kinds of proposals that really do meet that end. That's the way we look at them. And I do think it's meant a lot to the community. 

It's not, again, it's not a huge number of students that live there. But I don't look at our student body as an aggregate. I look at them as a collection of individual humans that have very different needs. Now that's challenging because there are a lot of students. There are 15,000 undergraduates and another 7,000 or 8,000 graduate students. 

So a lot of people get scared about that. And they say, well, gosh, if we do this for everybody, then we're going to have to do it. But from my seat, we're in the we're in the business of humans. We're not in the business of a company. We're not a corporation in the way that Apple is or Google or something. We are in the human business. And any time I can have an impact on a singular human or a small collection of humans or a large collection of humans, I'm going to take the opportunity to do that. 

LEANNA: Yes. Thank, you again. I just think-- I think it's important just like what you were saying that although Loving House is only 30 residents in there, but I think it's still been an impact that it was there to be offered and that other students saw that and saw that-- seeing that that house is there just says that it's still a supportive community. And all the program houses are a supportive community for everyone and their different identities. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: I appreciate you saying that. I do think that's right. Even if it's not an individual benefit, right. So even if I'm a person that doesn't need that community at that time or chooses not to be a part of it, if I identify with the community it may be that I feel very-- that really affirms my sense of being here at Cornell. 

And I did hear that from a number of alumni, as I mentioned the one that was at the ribbon cutting, but others who maybe were here back in the past when they made an attempt at this before and it didn't happen. And they were really heartened to see the institution move in this direction, even though they weren't going to directly benefit from it either. To them it really affirmed such an important part of who they are. 

LEANNA: OK. I'm going to move on. So what groups supported the creation of Loving House the most? And how did the administration manage the pushback from other students, parents, faculty et cetera, relating to its creation? 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Yeah, so I think-- I kind of referenced that it was a couple of students. And then they really worked with the Student Assembly to get support and the Residential Student Congress to get support. So I would give them a lot of credit. 

A couple of other groups-- there is an alumni group, it's called CUGALA. And I don't know if you've found that in your research already. I'm not going to remember exactly what the acronym stands for. But it's essentially alumni LGBTQA+ organization of Cornell alums who stay committed to and connected and try to advocate on behalf of their community. They were modestly involved, I would say. 

I think the students were really driving it. The residential life folks were helpful in thinking through this. And it was that small working group that I charged to really think about an implementation plan. And they looked at different spaces on campus and thought about the implications of those spaces. And so they were really good. 

You know, I would say, I don't recall a lot of pushback. Look, there's not a decision that we make that doesn't elicit some negative reaction. Sometimes more than others. I think some people push back just because it's kind of an anti-administration stance. And they don't really know us as humans or what motivates us or what we're trying to do to support the community. 

And then there's some that, frankly, have views that are contrary to my own or that may be contrary to the university's that might be bigoted in nature, or other things like that, that really push against us. I don't remember that being overwhelming. 

But when those types of things come in, frankly, it doesn't-- it bothers me, but it's not something I'm going to entertain a whole lot because we have to have a pretty clear compass about what's important to us and what's going to support our students. And that doesn't mean we don't get pressure. And it doesn't mean at times that's not hard, and sometimes more than other. 

But I really don't recall this being some kind of tidal wave of pushback or anything like that. I think most people were either enthusiastic and excited or ambivalent, which means I just didn't hear from people. 

And I don't-- you know, sometimes you look back on history with a little bit of a like they say, the rose-colored lenses. Like you remember it more fondly than it was. But so maybe I'm doing that. But I don't remember. And I didn't go back in my email archive to look and see if I got a bunch of nasty-grams or anything like that. Which, again, it does happen. For sure, I get some nasty messages. 

I can't remember. It would be interesting to go back to like the Cornell Daily Sun Facebook page and see if there were nasty comments or anything like that when it was announced. I don't know. I mean some of that-- I don't mean this in a way that's flippant, but sometimes, when you know you're doing the right thing, you just have to ignore some of those things. 

LEANNA: Yeah. I think it also shows that, like, since there wasn't as much pushback that maybe this was really the right time for it. And you know that if there's so much support for it, you know it's definitely going to thrive in this moment. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Yeah, for sure. 

LEANNA: Yeah, OK, next question. What were the primary concerns that inhabited the creation of Loving House? And how did student advocacy contribute to its final founding? 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Yeah, I think you've heard me say it couple of times-- I think Ian and Joe were really critical to that. And I will say, I think-- you know, I know some of the history of some of the other program houses. 

And there was at times more contentious relationship between students and the administration about the creation of those, the LLC for example, which was established after a takeover of Day Hall. You may know that history. In fact, the former dean of our law school was a part of that movement when he was an undergraduate here at Cornell. His name is Eduardo Peñalver. He's now the president of the University of Seattle or Seattle University, I think. 

He was here until just a couple of years ago. So I talked with him about this extensively. You know, that was a different time. But this was not a contentious dialogue at all. It was students raising this issue as something they would like to see. It was, as I said, they passed some resolutions. I charged a group. And boom, we put it in place. 

So this was very much unlike some of the program houses that were founded in the past over either really hateful and hurtful incidents or over student advocacy that really had to ratchet up to a degree because it seemed like the institution really wasn't paying attention or wasn't being responsive at the time. 

Again, I wasn't here, so I hesitate to pass judgments on that, just from what I read or what I hear about from folks. But it was important that the students came forward and shared their experiences and their perspectives. And they were important. And beyond that, there wasn't a lot of things that inhibited it. 

I think-- there were logistics, like figuring out how you're going to do it. Where is it going to be? And how are you going to have people sign up? And how are you going to make sure it is a truly safe space for those individuals? And how are you going to staff it? There's logistical things. But the working group that I charged really worked through a number of those things. 

I think if you ask-- I know you're working with Taylor on this-- I think if you ask Taylor, she would say that they continue to learn things every year about how to best support the Loving House and staff it and manage it and do all those types of things. But that's the case with anything. We always are going to get better at the things we do over time. 

And so those are just expected anytime you're going to create something new. So I didn't feel like there were a lot of obstacles in that regard. I would probably say, I don't I don't remember this, again, being a huge issue for me, but I probably wondered what-- if the institution was going to get a lot of reaction one way or the other. 

But that didn't inhibit our decision. Again, it was the right thing to do. But you always have to be aware of what that might do. And it's not because I would mind getting us some of that reaction. But I always-- I often worry about making decisions. And this is sometimes hard for students. So I apologize, I'm digressing here a little bit. 

Sometimes we might make a decision, which is the right decision, but we also know that it is going to create potentially even a more hostile environment for some of our students because it will get a lot of attention. And I never want to put our students in a position where they're going to become the target of hate things or other stuff like that, which has happened on this campus. 

And so sometimes you think about those things because you want to make sure that you're doing all you can to prevent our students from feeling targeted or anything along those lines. But that, again, I don't think that was the case. And it was-- there really wasn't a lot of barriers to getting this done once we just found that alignment with the students and got their impressions. 

So I would go back to the-- this is an example of really how that can work well. And I think despite-- sometimes it might feel like there's a little bit of an "us versus them" with students and the administration. I think administration is a little confusing because it's a big nebulous term. 

But I think more often than most people would appreciate, there's actually similar goals or similar values or beliefs. We might see the world a little differently based on our own lived experiences or our ages or other things like that. But I think there can be more alignment than sometimes it's given credit for. And I think this was an example of when that alignment was right in sync. 

LEANNA: OK, well, that it for the questions. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: We got through them. Any others that you want to add based on the conversation or other things? 

SPEAKER: Well, I was just going to say, and I like to do this at the end of every interview, is there anything that you believe is pertinent to the understanding of the founding of Loving House or anything that you want to add that we didn't explicitly ask? 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Like a journalist, here. I like this. That's great. I've been interviewed by a lot of journalists, and that's a very common way to frame-- or to wrap up an interview. No, I think your questions were very good. I think we hit on the key points. I feel that we were able to hit on those things. 

But, again, if there are any other things you'd like to ask or to pull on, we've got four more minutes. But we don't need to take it either, if you're ready to be-- if you got what you need. 

SPEAKER: I was just going to say, I wanted to extend how grateful I am, as well as, I know, many of my peers. We are in a Queer Identities and Beyond class, Learning Where You Live. And we're extremely thankful that you agreed to help found the Loving House and that you're still in support of the students. 

I really liked that one thing you said. It really resonated with me. Sometimes, when you know you're doing the right thing, you sort of have to ignore push back. I think that's very inspiring. 

RYAN LOMBARDI: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I consider my role one to be in service of students. And it's a privilege to serve our community and do all we can do to help our students feel like they have a place to thrive. 

SPEAKER: --do you have anything to add? 

LEANNA: I think it's just really nice to know that we have an administration that at least really wants to support our students. And I think that's-- what you said, it's often lost on students because, you know, administration-- it's such an umbrella term. And people see it as like this big thing. And you know the young, modern thing, it's pushback against like "authority." 

But I think it's nice that we have the same goals and that they can align. And this is a wonderful example of how they do align and how that we all want Cornell to be the best that it can be for the students and for everyone who's a part of it. That's right. Yup, well--