Texas’ third largest public university is designating an area of the school’s library as a “safe space for queer students,” specifically catering to LGBTQ students and faculty.

The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) announced the space after working with the LGBTQ+ Program, which bills itself as the “heart of the LGBTQ+ community on campus.”

The area dubbed the “Rainbow Lounge,” will feature “support groups, Pride Peers hosting their office hours, staff and faculty acting as mentors, and a selection of queer books,” according to the university’s school newspaper.

Pride Peers is a student group that aims to “support a campus free of prejudice, bigotry, harassment, and violence.” It does this “by providing inclusive and intersectional programming” on topics such as “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”

Elle Covington, who works in the library, told the school paper, “The main thing is just that it’s a visible representation of the library’s support for our queer and trans students.”

Covington went on to say that the lounge “will be in close proximity to librarian offices, providing an easy line of sight for staff to watch students so they can feel protected and supported.”

In a comment provided to The Texan, Jeff Carlton, executive director for communications and media relations for UTA, said that “the new lounge is expected to be used as a study space, a meeting room for support groups, office hours for our LGBTQ+ Program, and for other UTA-affiliated purposes.”

While Carlton claimed there are no construction costs associated with the launch of the 120-square-foot Rainbow Lounge, the area’s two restrooms are slated to be “renovated to be gender inclusive.” The costs associated with that renovation were not disclosed.

“One [reason for the newly-created space] we emphasize is that even though this is called the Rainbow Lounge, it is open for everyone,” Janet Burka, another librarian, said. “It’s not just for the queer and trans community. It’s for allies; it’s for [all]. It’s a welcoming space.”

But not everyone feels the same as Burka. Carlos Turcios, vice president of the Turning Point USA chapter on campus, feels the lounge is exclusionary by definition.

“The fact is that they are segregating an area for people with a certain sexual orientation and gender identity. These same people say we need inclusion, but this is exclusion,” Turcios told The Texan.

UTA student Suriel Torres said he did not want to infringe on anyone’s experience but took issue with the intentional design of the lounge, the fact that visitors will be constantly overseen by staff in the name of safety.

Torres said, “Faculty will always be there watching over them. That doesn’t sound like mature young adults. That sounds like self-victimization.”

Another UTA student, Thomas Evans, expressed concern that the existence of the lounge was preferential to one student group at the expense of others.

He wrote in an email to The Texan, “The LGBTQ+ population can do what it wants as a separate entity; however, as soon as the school starts supporting them over all of the other students, that is when I have an issue, especially when they are using my tuition money to do so.”

Evans continued, “All students are loved and appreciated regardless of who they are. They should still have all of the same opportunities as everyone else, but I don’t think that means anyone should get exclusive treatment at the detriment of other students.”

UTA student Hope Bingham does not see the lounge as exclusionary or divisive but instead as an important initiative by the university for students like her.

“It shows that we’re welcome,” she said. “That you’ve somewhere to go, and the university supports us.”