When Chancellor Wendler met with the Daily Egyptian’s editorial board earlier this month, he apologized for his remarks regarding homosexuality, in which he said offering same-sex benefits at SIUC would encourage “sinful behavior.”

He later promised to do his best to regain the trust of gays and lesbians by forming a task force that would discuss issues of homosexuality and work toward improving the environment for gays and lesbians on campus.

The task force, as Wendler envisioned it, was to include members of the administration, faculty, staff, students and members of the community. And Board of Trustees Chairman Glenn Poshard proposed the committee would bring in national leaders from all sides of the issue to make recommendations on gay issues.

While we expressed our approval of Wendler’s proposal, we harbored doubts about whether he would take strong measures to get the committee formed as quickly as possible.

Nearly three weeks have now passed, and the task force has not even begun to form. Unfortunately, our skepticism appears justified.

The only steps taken so far are a couple of casual conversations between Paulette Curkin, co-director of the SIUC Triangle Coalition, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, and John Dunn, provost and vice chancellor, whom Wendler put in charge of organizing the task force.

Dunn told the Daily Egyptian that it is too early to talk about where his conversations with Curkin will lead and that his first priority is making sure the same-sex benefits policy is properly implemented.

We understand Dunn’s desire to implement the same-sex benefits plan quickly and effectively, but we believe doing so should not come at the expense of delaying the formation of the task force.

Wendler is still on thin ice with the gay community, and the longer he allows delay the more trust he will lose.

This is a campus that needs to heal. Ignoring it is not the remedy.

Many gays and lesbians have already called for Wendler’s resignation. If the University backs out on this plan, how will Wendler convince them that he deserves their trust?

We see no reason why the proposed task force is not forming more quickly other than a lackadaisical attitude on the part of Wendler and the University administration.

We say this because we have seen that the University can move quickly on other critical issues. The Financial Aid Office’s investigation and subsequent decision to halt the use of federal work-study funds by private businesses in the Student Center took place within about one month.

If Wendler’s proposal were taken just as seriously, shouldn’t we at least have the beginnings of a task force formed by now? Or, at the least, a timeline for the formation?

We hope our doubts are misplaced. But University administrators will have to start taking meaningful action soon if they wish to prove us wrong.