‘A safe learning environment’

College and universities work to accommodate transgender, non-binary students

In the 16 years that Campus Pride, a national nonprofit that advocates for college campuses to be safer for and more inclusive of LGBT students, has been operational, co-founder Shane Windmeyer said more than pride has improved on the nation’s campuses.

Colleges are also starting to recognize and address issues sensitive to students who identify as either transgender or outside of the gender binary, Windmeyer said.

“The language and general awareness has increased in the last decade,” Windmeyer said. “We’re seeing more transgender men and women in the media and spotlight, it is has an impact on young people today and their identities.”

Windmeyer said that in Connecticut, “as well as in other progressive states,” the discussions have moved beyond wrestling with the existence and humanity of transgender folks, on to conversations such as how to address people by their correct gender pronouns.

At New Haven’s Southern Connecticut State University, one of its most recent changes in the field of transgender issues is its “gender inclusive housing.” The on-campus housing, which gives students who don’t identify as the gender they were assigned at birth the ability to live in an arrangement with which they are more comfort-

able, actually dates back to 2012, but not under its current name.

“We moved from calling it ‘gender neutral housing’ to ‘gender inclusive’ because it’s more affirming. People are not necessarily neutral in their gender,” said SCSU Vice President for Student Affairs Tracy Tyree. “We intend on utilizing this fall semester a space in one of our residency halls where students don’t have to identify as transgender, but they just have to be willing to acknowledge and recognize this space where people are trans or non-binary will share a bathroom. We’re trying to do much better by our students in terms of the housing options we make available.”

SCSU has moved to a new software system for its oncampus housing, which allows students to pick their own spaces, Tyree said.

Additionally, SCSU students who wish to be called by a different name than what is listed on government paperwork are able to be listed on class rosters by their preferred name. It is only on paperwork such as financial aid forms, which are linked to social security numbers, where students don’t have any latitude, Tyree said.

Tyree estimated there are 41 gender neutral bathrooms on the SCSU campus. Her next “project,” she said, would be creating a map of those bathrooms to make them “easily identifiable to those visiting campus.”

Jenna C. Retort, coordinator of the SCSU Sexuality And Gender Equality Center, or SAGE, said she thinks the university is moving in the right direction for serving the needs of LGBTQ+ students, for a number of reasons, including a physical space and services and programs, which also serve to educate the wider students body. Retort said SCSU President Joe Bertolino, for instance, started an LGBTQ+ advisory council, which is now going through the benchmarking process for the Campus Pride Index of universities that are institutionally committed to LGBTQ-inclusive policy, program and practices. Further, a grant was obtained to hire student education ambassadors in the spring, and a Lavender Commencement was held to recognize LGBTQ+ students who graduated.

“We have a lot of support and that is the most critical part,” Retort said.

The University of Connecticut offers a comprehensive gender transition guidelines, offering transitioning students the opportunity to “utilize a transition team.” This includes “Determining when the individual will begin using the sex-segregated facilities that match his/her gender identity; and facilitating the creation of gender neutral facilities where practicable;”

On the Campus Pride’s online Campus Pride Index UConn scores 4.5 of 5 stars.

Yale University provides resources for transgender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer and gender-questioning students, faculty and staff, including programming resources, preferred name use, gender-inclusive housing and readily accessible online information, such as an “all gender restroom map”.

The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system, which comprises SCSU and 16 other colleges and universities in the state, has also committed itself to recognizing differences among its student body.

“Fortunately, we live in a state with a history of implementing inclusive policies and one that is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all students and their families,” CSCU President Mark Ojakian wrote to college presidents in February, according to the Connecticut Post. “We will continue to make sure that all of our students feel valued, visible, protected, and empowered to pursue their education.”

According to the Post, Gateway Community College librarian Lillian Maisfehlt, a transgender woman, has transitioned openly in the last two years to set an example for students.

“As a transgender staff member, awareness of the state’s legal protection of transgender individuals as well as the (Connecticut Board of Regents’) nondiscrimination policy were key in allowing me to transition without fear of reprisal,” Maisfehlt wrote to the Post.

In May, the state Board of Regents passed a policy affirming transgender students’ right to use the bathrooms and locker rooms most closely matching their gender identity. A non-binary individual does not identify as either a man or a woman.

Two Catholic universities in Fairfield — Sacred Heart University and the Jesuit Fairfield University — also have existing policies for transgender students.

“Fairfield University is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive community and in accordance with state and federal law, has accommodations for gender-neutral residences and bathrooms, as well as gender-neutral public restrooms available throughout campus,” said Fairfield University Vice President of Marketing and Communications Jennifer Anderson in an emailed statement.

Also in an emailed statement, Sacred Heart Director of Communications Deborah Noack said the university has co-ed dormitories, individual bathroom facilities, on-campus clubs and counseling for LGBT students.

“We embrace a positive view of (LGBTQ) identities and relationships by producing a safe space where people are free to express who they are without fear of reprisal, and we do our best to fulfill all requests for needed accommodations,” Noack wrote. “We know that being or feeling different can result in social isolation and exclusion, which in turn leads to being more vulnerable to instigation and continuation of abuse. At Sacred Heart, we are extremely inclusive, and we give people the freedom and resources to define, determine and declare who they are.”

At some Connecticut universities, there is a mission to create inclusion by sharing information with the entire campus.

“In the last year and a half, we have been working on how to not only service our transgender students, but to also educate the Quinnipiac University community,” said Diane Ariza, chief diversity officer for Hamden’s Quinnipiac University. “We created a task force to look at how this impacts admissions, to housing, to name changes and to what resources (transgender students) might need, including counseling.”

Ariza said Quinnipiac does not have official gender neutral housing, but there are options to students on “a case-by-case basis.”

Wesleyan University in Middletown has a page on its website dedicated to answering questions about “queer life” at the university. It offers gender neutral housing to first-year students and has queer-themed housing for any students matriculating beyond that. Fifty-six of 70 academic and administrative buildings, it says, offer gender-neutral bathrooms.

“When it comes to transgender issues, we definitely have seen a paradigm shift toward greater visibility and awareness,” Windmeyer said.

Windmeyer suggested that the federal government under former President Barack Obama may have played a large role in this paradigm shift through enforcing Title IX.

“At the end of the day, what these campuses are doing is creating a safe learning environment for all their students. Environments that are not inclusive are not going to yield the same results we want for all students,” he said.