Articles tagged with: University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF)
Day of Silence 2012 observed this Friday, as another gay teen is mourned
Day of Silence in protest of the bullying and silencing of LGBT students and their allies is being observed on Friday, April 20, in high schools and colleges throughout the nation — including, in Alaska, UAF and UAA.
Fairbanks for One Anchorage: Music, dessert, & fun at UAF Pub
Fairbanksers are holding a fundraiser for the equal rights of their fellow Alaskans 360 miles south this Thursday, March 1 at the Pub in UAF’s Wood Center . The fundraiser, for One Anchorage, will feature a night of live music from local Fairbanks talent, and a dessert auction of donated baked goodies.
Paula Poundstone returns to Alaska: March shows in Juneau, Anchorage, & Fairbanks
Stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone visited Fairbanks last August with the cast and crew of NPR’s news quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! She liked it so well that she’s coming back to Alaska in March, with shows in Juneau (March 15), Anchorage (March 16), and Fairbanks (March 17).
LGBTQA students ready for a new academic year at University of Alaska campuses
New and returning University students around the state are getting ready for a new academic year, and LGBTQA students are no exception. Students at University of Alaska campuses will be enjoying something they didn’t have this time last year: protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. University of Alaska Regents passed an amendment to UA’s nondiscrimination policy last February 18 after two periods of testimony at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).
Solidarity in Spirit and Action
A guest post about Spirit Day by Lauren, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Today we wore purple to celebrate and rejoice in unity for each other within the LGBT community, coming together in support of one another. The simple act of incorporating the color in our wardrobe today was a powerful action that showed our friends, neighbors, family and strangers that there are people who care about you, about me, about everyone. We asked our friends and family to wear a color to show their love and they did, and to everyone who wore purple today, to show your support, we thank you.
I don’t know if you heard, but just hours before Spirit Day commenced, another young man couldn’t bear his pain and took his own life on campus at Oakland University in Michigan. Though the police reported that bullying was not an evident factor in 19-year-old Corey Jackson’s death, we all know that there are many kinds of pain that drive us to the edge and, oftentimes, over it. I wept when I read the article; my heart hurt as I read and I just couldn’t believe that just before our day of pulling together as an allied community, that one man was unable to hold on just one more day. I think the response of Melissa Pope, the director of the university’s Gender and Sexuality Center, sums up a lot of what people are feeling today and recently in response to the rash of suicides that have ravaged our nation and communities the past two months:
We must look beyond the term “bullying” to the overall treatment of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community to begin to grasp the long-standing epidemic of suicide among our LGBT youth.
While the national press has picked up this issue over the last two months, we have been losing high numbers of LGBT youth to suicide for decades. In recent years, we’ve labeled the cause as bullying. But the root cause goes deeper – it goes to the very core of our society that discriminates against the LGBT community on all levels, including the denial of basic human rights that are supposed to belong to every person.
As I sit with the students who regularly visit the Oakland University Gender and Sexuality Center, including the newer members of our community, drawn to the Center for affirmation and support, I am confident that these individuals know they are loved and accepted for who they are. My greater concern is the hundreds of students, faculty and staff who do not come to the Center. Those who are afraid to come out – perhaps even to themselves – for fear of the persecution they will suffer. My greatest hope is that those who feel isolated reach out to resources like the GSC to discover they are not alone. We are here to listen and offer support.
I, too, hope that people out there can find somewhere they feel safe enough to share their burdens. As I write this, I’m listening to SuperChick’s “We Live” on repeat because of these words that make up the chorus: “We live, we love, we forgive and never give up / Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above / And today we remember to live and to love”. That entire song is about learning to live when you know life is hell, when there isn’t much you can do. Each day, we just need to remember to live and love. To not give up, to keep moving forward, because it gets better. It really does, I promise. I wouldn’t be here, writing this to you all, if it didn’t.
There are safe spaces on campus if you feel overwhelmed by anything in your life, related to sexuality or not, and it doesn’t matter if you are an LGBT student or not. Here at UAF, you can go to any of our GSA advisors for advice (hence the title ‘advisor’) or anything that you need. You can go to the Student Health and Counseling Center. Talk to a friend, an RA, your Dorm Director, peer mentor, friendly person on your floor. Call your parents, if you feel comfortable, or call someone you can trust. The GSA meets every Wednesday at 4:30pm at the Library, room 502. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come to share their stories–because all stories deserve to be listened to. Even the people in the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity office (OMAD) are cool enough to listen with respect if you come to them. You can apply these suggestions on different campuses as well–get in touch with your diversity/LGBT clubs, your Women’s Center, Men’s Center, health center, and faculty that help advise these groups and services.
Outside of campus, there are many places you can go if you are being harassed or bullied in any way. If it’s bad enough, let the police know (do this if you are on campus as well). Treat harassment, even if it’s ‘not important’ or ‘not violent’ in the form of verbal abuse, as a potential attack and tell people. Tell anyone who will listen. Sympathetic ears really work wonders for hurting hearts, and they generally come with shoulders you can cry on. Your friends are friends for a reason: they know you, support you, and love you. If they don’t do these things, they’re not good friends (and you should think about making new ones). Let them help you out of a bad situation. Is it a loved one who is targeting you? Find someone to help mediate some sort of conflict resolution meeting AFTER extracting yourself from the situation. If your faith is kosher with the way you love (like many are growing to be nowadays), find someone who can guide you on that front as well.
No one deserves to be hurt for who they love. The way I see harassment is that it is like a cancer–you can often not tell that it’s there. It might be subtle as a butterfly’s kiss or like a freight train barreling down the tracks, but it is there. Early treatment of the situation will generally help resolve the issues, but sometimes you need other outside help. Build your support network up and get help dealing with things if you are confronted with harassment, abuse, and/or bullying. Violence, verbal abuse, bigotry, pick the poison: none of it is all right or acceptable, and if you find yourself in a situation where you are dealing with these issues, get help. Now.
In the end, wearing purple alone does not help us get over the fact that bigotry leads to abuse in its myriad of forms. What it does is identify those who are capable of supporting us while we deal with said abuse. No one should have to live or stay in a place or situation that does not support them–no one. Domestic or not, violence in any form is not something that should be a part of our social community. Whether you are gay or not, if you are confronted with harassment, you are able to take charge of the situation. You are not a victim, you are someone who has the power to change what is going on to you. People can only hurt you if you let them, right? Don’t ever let them. Get help. A lesson I had to learn the hard way is that asking for assistance is not a sign of weakness, but rather a form of power.
Be powerful, my friends.
Safe space or “brain drain” at University of Alaska?
Did you know that the University of Alaska is the only state university system in America that does not have sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy? All of the other 49 state university systems include sexual orientation as a protected group, and almost half include gender identity and/or expression in their non-discrimination policies.<
At Thursday’s meeting in Anchorage, students Tristan (UAF), Mark (UAA) and Lauren (Juneau) mentioned this fact when they asked the UA Regents to add sexual orientation to the university system’s policy. UA students have been making this request at almost every public Regents meeting for over a year. Pat Gamble, the new UA President, met them in the lobby.
“I’ve got a Board in there who are basically my bosses,” joked Gamble, “and if I’m to influence them in any way, I need to know more about this. We should set up a meeting so I can learn more.”
The Regents said earlier this year that they would take up the students’ request during 2010. Hopefully, they will and Gamble will be a supportive influence.
Meanwhile, the students have done their homework by collecting facts on university non-discrimination policies around the country and incidents of LGBT discrimination at UA campuses, and have honed their speech-writing skills. By asking politely at meeting after meeting, they show their determination to do what needs to be done. They rock!
To show you just how they rock, two of the presentations given at the meeting are posted below. Here is the testimony that Tristan gave at the Board of Regents meeting:
Hello! As you know, my name is Tristan Walsh. I am here representing in part the University of Alaska Fairbanks Gay-Straight Alliance. We are here to renew our offer of co-operation and partnership with the Board of Regents in updating the University of Alaska Non-discrimination policy.
As you all know, the policy currently lacks language protecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students, staff and faculty. As I brought to your attention last meeting, the University of Alaska is the only statewide university system to not have these protections in their non-discrimination policy. All other 49 statewide university systems include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies. I have emailed a compilation of these non-discrimination policies to you to provide easy access. For the University of Alaska to not have this simple addendum is a severe drawback to a state that has to fight brain drain and increased challenges in recruiting talented staff, faculty, athletes, and students.
The language that we seek to change is to include the phrase “sexual orientation”. In defining the term, we strongly propose that the term encompass the additional phrases of gender identity and gender expression. Transgender students and staff are often the ones who face the most persecution or misanthropy in the workplace and school. The UA system already has transgender students, and they face difficulties daily on our campuses. Again, I would express our dedication in helping to outline these terms and what exactly it entails for the university. Frankly, it means making our university competitive with outside university systems when it comes to recruiting staff and students. Almost half of the outside state university systems also include gender identity and/or expression in their language.
On our end, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Gay-Straight Alliance has been doing our own work to make the university a safer place. Called the Safe Space training program, we are seeking to create tools for staff, faculty and students to address issues faced by LGBT students and staff. Working with the Department of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity, as well as the Women’s Center, it seeks to equip an educational institution with the tools it needs to understand and communicate with its LGBT students: the issues and circumstances such as coming out, dealing with homophobia in the residence halls or workplace, and providing the ability to deal constructively with an LGBT student population that will likely only increase at the university.
This brings me full circle to the subject of the non-discrimination policy. This will be a capstone measure for the policies already being created by efforts such as the Safe Space program. We’d really love for you guys, or just one or two of you, next time you’re in Fairbanks, please drop in. The door is always open and we’d love to show you how the program works and how people are trained and what effect it can have. Their work can only go so far if they are not helped by the Board of Regents in official university policy.
In closing, I would like to highlight that these proposed changes are in fact not that radical. They in fact would be aligning university policies that already exist, and updating the university’s policies to the same standards found in the secondary school districts. In closing, I’d like to cite a particular policy it will agree with:
“The University of Alaska inspires learning, and advances and disseminates knowledge through teaching, research, and public service, emphasizing the North and its diverse peoples”.
So I’d really like you to come by some time at UAF or UAA or UAS and see how truly diverse this university really is, and why that’s worth protecting. Thank you and have a good day.
And here is Lauren’s testimony to the UA Regents:
Hello, my name is Lauren Tibbitts and I am an incoming freshman for UAF; I am representing both the Juneau Gay-Straight Alliance chapters and, in part, the UAF GSA club, in the effort to amend the Non-Discrimination policy.
While making my list of colleges to attend this coming year, I had, at first, wanted to attend UAA. This way I could remain close to my family and it was cheaper than attending a school out of state. It would also be ideal for my involvement in many social causes, including the Gay-Straight Alliance and other gay-rights and equality groups, as I am well-acquainted with many members of the diverse LGBT community in our state.
I had applied, unaware that Alaska is the only state whose university system does not cover sexual orientation in their Non-Discrimination policy. After learning this fact I immediately looked elsewhere for my post-secondary education; I was willing to pay more money to attend a school that would not make me compromise my morals just to save on tuition costs and other expenses. I spent hundreds of dollars to apply to five other schools that did include sexual orientation, at the very least, in their own discrimination policies before I heard of the campaign the UAF GSA was leading to amend the policy.As I learned more about what the UAF chapter had been doing, my Juneau GSA chapter decided to get involved, hosting events and writing about the lack of equal protection in our state on our networking sites, local newspapers, talking to whomever would listen. In the end I had personally gathered a pledge from almost one hundred students who decided they will not attend a University of Alaska school if the policy is not amended. Using only the projected tuition figures for this coming school year, that is a sum of almost $535,900 that the university system would not be getting because of a lack of protection for the LGBT students attending at the different campuses.
It is very important that the policy is amended to include sexual orientation, and that the term cover both gender identity and gender expression as well; in fact, I’m not the only one it is important to. I am here today because of the gracious businesses and individuals in Juneau who donated to my fund to come here in order to give this testimony.
In the coming school year I will be serving as the UAF GSA chapter president and am committed to seeing the amendment pass and cooperating with the Board of Regents to find language that would adequately provide protection for all students. I am not the only one with a vested interest in seeing the amendment go through, either. At your February meeting you heard the emotional testimony from a UAF student, Karen, whose roommate made her life a living hell because of her orientation, and whose RA was either uninterested, because of a lack of impetus to quickly resolve the situation, or unequipped to deal with the situation due to the absence of sufficient support from the overseeing Board of Regents. Either way, it was a horrendous experience for Karen, who is but one student attending the university.
When a student applies and is accepted to a university, there is a level of trust given by them to the university–trust in that their new home will protect them from people who would do them harm, trust that they will be safe there. Karen trusted the university to help her in her hour of need but she fell through the cracks; her RA simply told her to ‘talk things out’, as if either party could have convinced the other of their point of view and resolve the situation that way. Unless you declare equal protection to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, we will never know the true numbers of harassment cases on the campus regarding these three things. We will never fully enable the students to thrive while in the university because we do not give them the assurance that they are and will be safe from emotional, verbal, and physical harm.
Students will look at applying to schools the way I did–choosing, if at all possible, to go to a university that does include sexual orientation at the very least in their non-discrimination policy over one that does not. If people do not want to come here, of course you will not be able to attract the highest caliber of students, faculty and staff. No one wants to be at a university that is sub-par, and with the 49 other state-wide university systems whose policies cover orientation, students have a veritable buffet of choices to choose from. How can we expect to convince them to attend our state’s schools if they have better options?
