LGBTIQAA task force to present concerns to WU

Kristin McGrath

The newly formed task force that represents the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, asexual, and allies (LGBTIQAA) community will take its first steps in shaping future University resources at the end of April.

After meeting weekly this semester, the task force has formed subgroups to investigate five main issues to present to Dean of Arts & Sciences James McLeod.

The task force, which is composed of faculty, administrators, and students, was formed in January in response to a resolution passed last year by the Student Union (SU) Senate to create a resource center to serve students of alternate orientations and lifestyles.

The first subgroup will address the appointment of a person who would serve as coordinator for LGBTIQAA issues, said Professor of Anthropology T.R. Kidder, who heads the task force.

“We’re dealing with questions now such as where physically [the coordinator] would be housed and to whom they would report,” said Kidder. “The idea we’re wrestling with now is if this is something we’d want to recommend.”

The second issue involves providing a safe environment for LGBTIQAA students. One of the task force’s subgroups is currently investigating the safety concerns of members of the Washington University community and the existing policies of the Washington University Police Department (WUPD), Student Health and Counseling Services, and Residential Life (ResLife) that affect students’ safety.

“One of our concerns is how can we make this a safer campus,” said Kidder. “There have been incidents on campus that people feel have been threatening. I don’t know to what extent these [incidents] are real or perceived or what the level of threat was in these cases.”

Chief of Police Don Strom said that while the number of hate crimes targeting the LGBTIQAA community is small, incidents of violence do occur. Strom recalls one incident in late fall where two students had eggs thrown at them while walking along Snow Way Drive.

Although the leads were insufficient to follow up on the case, Strom said WUPD maintains a strong stance against such crimes. All WUPD officers are trained in hate crime investigation and several represented the department in a safe zone training in the fall.

“We are supportive of their efforts and want to broaden our knowledge base wherever we can,” said Strom. “We will certainly listen to any recommendations they [LGBTIQAA] present, and will try to implement them when applicable and appropriate.”

The third issue is the matter of finding effective ways to communicate with students about their concerns.

“We’re trying to do an assessment of campus life and culture,” said Kidder. “What are the concerns of members of the campus community, and how can we go about finding out more about who is concerned? How do we talk to and survey students?”

A fourth subgroup is investigating ways that the University can better accommodate and attract potential LGBTIQAA students through its marketing and through its orientation activities.

“I think our recommendation [to the University] will have to do with how the University markets itself [to potential students] in general,” said Kidder. “Whether GLBT issues are even mentioned and whether they should be – whether students giving tours address this as an issue so that when GLBT students apply, we know what kind of information they’ve gotten. The main question we’re asking ourselves is, ‘How are we perceived by potential students?'”

The duty of the fifth subgroup is to address the University’s current formal policies that affect LGBTIQAA issues and determine if these policies need to be changed. This task involves researching the policies and statements of ResLife, WUPD, and other University organizations “to advocate for inclusion of sex and gender issues in the policy language,” according to Kidder.

“We’re not trying to judge the University,” said Kidder. “We simply want to make sure that, if there’s language that seems inappropriate, it be modified to be more inclusive.”

According to Jill Stratton, assistant dean of students and associate director of Residential Life, ResLife’s policies reflect the inclusiveness that the task force promotes. Before the creation of the task force, ResLife was responding to SU’s petition. The issues that ResLife discussed with students centered mainly around housing.

“We’ve done a couple of things,” said Stratton. “With housing applications you can now identify as male, female, or transgender. We’ve been trying to be more proactive in putting our resources out there to meet the needs of the students.”

When the task force was created, Stratton requested to serve on it. That ResLife is represented on the board, she said, is imperative, as ResLife is central to many students’ experience at Washington University.

“For every first-year student, with the exception of commuter students, ResLife plays into almost every aspect of campus life,” said Stratton. “[The task force] is discussing safety issues and the idea of feeling comfortable where you live, which I feel is critical.”

For campus Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow, who serves the task force in the subgroup investigating University policy, making Washington University more accessible to the LGBTIQAA community is vital.

“I realize how important this work is,” said Katz Orlow. “People have multiple identities. I’m invested in working so that Wash. U. is a safe space for everyone, for personal expression. I learned from these students. They’ve made me passionate about what it means to experience freedom.”

Representing a religious organization, said Katz Orlow, involves “making sure there’s a place for spirituality and religion” but not imposing it on those the task force seeks to serve. Katz Orlow advises Keshet, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Jews.

“Since I work for Hillel, I bring a different lens to look at things because I have different resources. It’s not for me to say what it should or shouldn’t be. In Judaism a lot of people have felt that their lives have been shunned by the Jewish community. They feel like they had to choose between different identities. I don’t think that’s a choice they have to make.”

Once the recommendations have been presented to the administration, Kidder hopes that “we can act on these recommendations very quickly.”

The long-term effectiveness of the task force’s work, however, will depend on continued efforts from those involved, said Vice Chancellor for Students Jill Carnaghi, who also serves on the task force.

“We’d like to have some concrete outcomes by end of spring semester, but knowing full well that to be effective, this task force or some similar group is going to need to continue to meet in subsequent semesters to keep this topic in forefront and to continue to affect the environment and campus culture in ways that aren’t just superficial,” said Carnaghi.

– With additional reporting by Mandy Silver and Ben Sales

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