University officials have begun implementing new protections for transgender students and faculty — including amending Resident Life policies, educating the campus community and adding at least one gender-neutral bathroom in each university building.
On March 14, university President Dan Mote announced via e-mail that the university would interpret the Human Relations Code — the university’s primary document concerning issues of protection for diversity — to protect transgendered individuals. However, he said its wording didn’t need to be changed, which some think puts them at risk.
Two years ago, the University Senate and Mote approved the addition of the line “gender identity and expression” to the list of protections offered by the code, but the state attorney general’s office suggested it was unnecessary.
Although the line will not be explicitly written in, the code will be expanded to offer protections.
The decision resulted in mixed feelings for supporters of the transgender cause, said Rob Waters, associate vice president for academic affairs and special assistant to the president for diversity. Many were happy with the code’s expansion but felt the change did not go far enough.
“I don’t know if people feel safer,” Waters said. “I hope so. There are protections where there weren’t before.”
The daunting task hasn’t discouraged Christine Clark, executive director of the university’s Office of Human Relations Programs.
“Just because it’s challenging doesn’t mean we can’t do a good job,” she said.
A big effect of the change is that now transgender individuals who encounter abuse will be able to file a formal grievance report specifically on the grounds of gender identity and expression, Waters said.
“So before there may not have been another remedy, now there is,” he said.
One of the university’s main goals is to have a gender-neutral bathroom in every building, Waters said, but he doesn’t know when that will be realized. There will also be a list of all the gender-neutral bathrooms on the campus available at Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity, said Waters.
Resident Life is also trying to find bathrooms in the dorms that could easily be converted to gender-neutral and would offer more privacy to individuals who need it, said Jan Davidson, associate director for Resident Life. Existing bathrooms’ signs would be changed to exclude male and female figures, and locks would be added to ensure privacy. The changes would be relatively easy and inexpensive to implement.
“It doesn’t involve more costs or staff, and there’s no problems with students freaking out or retaliation,” Clark said. “They’re dealing with it.”
Resident Life also will draft a policy that formalizes their procedures for dealing with transgendered students who want more privacy in their living conditions, Davidson said.
“We have had a practice in place for a long time, but we don’t have a policy,” Davidson said. “We know what we would do if we were contacted by a student who is transgendered.”
“The [Resident Life] policy is catching up to people’s living experiences on campus,” Clark said.
Transgendered students would receive priority for roommates and more desirable, private living situations, like suites and apartments.
“We’ll have the most options the earlier we can hear from a student,” Davidson said.
So far, Resident Life has never had a transgendered student approach them with concerns or a request for special housing, Davidson said.
Efforts to educate the campus are also underway. The Rainbow Terrapin Training Network, under the LGBT office, will bring speakers to talk about their experiences to educate the campus on transgender issues, Clark said.
“It’s going to take a lot of education,” Waters said. “Transgender individuals are probably among the least understood groups.”
The issue is also important to faculty members transitioning from one gender to another, Clark said. A faculty member who begins the school year acting or looking like a member of one gender and then changing to the other may pose a challenges for students and co-workers.
“There is a general conclusion that a faculty or staff member does have the right to express themselves that way,” Waters said. “But in the interest of stability in the workplace you would have to pick one identity over the other.”
The new interpretation of the human relations code can expand its protections beyond the transgender community, Clark said.
“People may be more free about how they express themselves because of the code,” she said. “Women and men may feel they don’t have to abide by gender norms because they realize they have certain protection.”
Clark hopes the new campus efforts will be effective.
“I think that when leadership gets behind something it’s amazing the way people get behind it,” she said. “It will make people feel a lot safer and will make hostile people more cautious.”
However, people should still be wary that the code may not protect everyone, Clark said.
“I want to make sure I don’t paint an overly optimistic picture,” she said. “It can be hard to benefit from something leadership endorses.”
For the supporters of the transgender cause, the fight is not over. The human relations code will likely never include the new line unless it is added to the state or county law, and many are lobbying for that addition, Waters said.
