All those groups have stopped by the new office. Kenneth Mai ’15, the treasurer of QSA, said that he was glad to see the entire space filled at the open house held in the office in August.

Meanwhile, Mai said that the QSA is restructuring the way the organization works to make it more inclusive for the Class of 2016. Instead of being obligated to attend a certain number of events to be placed on the mailing list, all students have to do now is check a box on a form to indicate interest.

“Our goal is not to make all students come to QSA,” he said. “The goal is to make sure that everyone feels happy and safe and that those people who need help and who want a sense of community have somewhere to go.”

IT GETS BETTER

Students still point out concrete ways that Harvard can make new students more comfortable.

Sasanka N. Jinadasa ’15 mentioned the annual required instructive program Sex Signals for freshmen as an example of a heteronormative Harvard tradition.

“They offer an alternate Sex Signals for BGLTQ students, but I can’t imagine it’d be that difficult to create a general safe sex presentation for all sexualities,” Jinadasa said. “If this continues, not only are queer students made to go to a different event, they are publicly ostracized from a communal freshman experience.”

This year, freshman proctors were given copies of the book “It Gets Better” by Dan Savage and Terry Miller to help them become more sensitive to some of the problems students may be facing.

Vitti, who volunteered to specialize in BGLTQ freshman life as a proctor, said that he also acts as an extra resource for freshmen who are questioning their sexuality.

“I’m here to listen, above all else, and maybe give advice where I can,” he said.

Seresin, who is a Peer Advising Fellow for freshmen and is also a Crimson magazine writer, said that while proctors are more aware of issues of sexuality among students thanks to the book giveaway, there still are not enough BGLTQ PAFs.

“Nearly every single PAF is straight,” she said. “They should start asking about sexuality on the PAF application, because freshmen may need someone to talk to besides their proctor.”

But on the whole, even Bayard—who has critiqued many Harvard policies through the Occupy movement last fall and other protests—called Harvard a great place to be a BGLTQ-identifying student.

“I rarely give praise to Harvard, but it really doesn’t do a terrible job,” he said. “I think people are uncomfortable with feeling uncomfortable about different sexual orientations here, which is pretty rare.”

—Staff writer Michelle Denise L. Ferreol can be reached at mferreol@college.harvard.edu.