If you are looking for the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity, you might need directions.

The office is located within a maze of hallways on the ground level of Cole Field House. But the office’s director, Luke Jensen, said location is nothing compared to the other problems the office faces.

The office is severely underfunded, Jensen said. Its budget is too small to support more than six staff members, four who are students. Because of the staff shortage, office hours are unpredictable. Students are advised to come on certain business days at specific times. The resource room, where students can find a safe place to read and find answers to their most intimate questions, is a cramped space piled high with books and videos, all received through donations.

The office is budgeted about $75,000 annually — peanuts next to what some of the university’s peers set aside to fund their LGBT support offices.

The Spectrum Center at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is budgeted around $260,000 a year, Spectrum Center Director Jacqueline Simpson said. It has four staff members, three student workers and a library that boasts more than 2,000 different materials for its students to check out.

At the LGBT Campus Resource Center at UCLA, students can engage in weekly community discussion groups and individual counseling and have access to a cyber center and a library with almost 4,000 books on LGBT topics that also function as safe zones.

The Gender Equity Resource Center at the University of California at Berkeley spends $200,000 covering staff salary and benefits and receives additional funding from the state. Last year, the office was allocated $55,000 in temporary monies.

Rob Waters, assistant to the president for equity and diversity, blamed the university’s budget issues as the reason for the Office of LGBT Equity’s limited resources, particularly referring to its staff shortage.

“If we weren’t in the middle of a budget crisis, I know they could use at least a couple more positions,” Waters said.

The Office of LGBT Equity is overseen by Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity Cordell Black, who will be replaced at the end of the academic year with a part-time administrator. He could not be reached for comment.

Adequate resources for the LGBT population is crucial, said Michael Weinberger, graduate coordinator of LGBT student involvement and community advocacy for the office of Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy.

“There’s many ways that LGBT students need to be served on a campus of this size,” he said. “We’re all supported by our offices, but there can always be more resources.”

According to its website, the office’s purpose is to provide various resources to LGBT students. The office also hosts annual events, including the LGBT Fall Reception, intended to introduce new students to university resources.

Jensen said that the office’s lack of resources limited the amount of outreach that could be provided to both current and prospective LGBT students.

“There’s a lot more we could be doing in terms of recruitment,” Jensen said, adding if the office had more money and staff, he would like to travel to different high schools to reach out to student alliance clubs.

Although the university is ranked well on the Campus Climate Index, a website that assesses friendliness towards LGBT students at universities, Jensen said more resources would go a long way toward recruiting more students.

Officials at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, understands what it’s like to be underfunded: They receive no state funding and have a budget of less than $40,000. With only two staff members and a handful of work study students, office director Terri Phoenix said they make do.

“North Carolina is still pretty conservative,” Phoenix said.

As for the future of the Office of LGBT Equity, Jensen said the office will take advantage of what money they’re allotted, while also trying different means to exhaust their resources and provide better services to students.

“We’re the ones who actually do all the work,” Jensen said. “And there’s a lot more we could be doing.”

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