Submitted by: Ray Anne Lockard
Attendees: 10
People attending included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty
members, and staff members. That meant that we received ideas from all
perspectives represented on campus.
Recommendations:
Make all literature available at Pitt that mentions benefits inclusive of
the "limited" domestic partner benefits we do have on campus. All the
literature currently given to people at Pitt – from new staff or faculty
to the literature available at the Plenary itself – omit those benefits.
This means that there is an automatic assumption that all families and
individuals at Pitt are heterosexual. It also means that lesbian,
bisexual and gay people at Pitt only learn about the limited benefits for
domestic partners accidentally by word of mouth.
Registered domestic partners at Pitt are, for instance, able to acquire
educational benefits for their partners and have bereavement time when the
partner dies. These are important benefits.
The most important benefit to all Pitt employees is that of health
benefits. While Pitt's antidiscrimination policy includes sexual
orientation and Pitt's diversity statement states that it is inclusive of
all communities, lesbian, bisexual and gay employees are paid less well
in comparison to their heterosexual colleagues because the benefits
package does not include health insurance coverage for the partners of
registered same-sex domestic partners. Important institutions and
companies within the city offer these benefits. Pitt is the city's
largest employer and needs to get on board with the same benefit packages
offered by such institutions as the world-renowned Carnegie Institute,
Mellon Financial Center, and others.
Regarding the benefits currently offered to registered domestic
partners at Pitt, we are offended and demeaned by the current policy that
states that when a partnership breaks-up we are required to wait two years
before we can register with a new partner. No such demands are made of
married heterosexual people when they divorce and remarry. That part of
the domestic partners policy must be repealed immediately because it
infers that registered same-sex domestic partners are promiscuous and
less committed to their partners than heterosexual married people. It is
discriminatory and must be repealed immediately.
There is a need for an office of lesbian, bisexual and gay studies at
Pitt. This office should report directly to the Provost and the person
in charge of it should have the authority to make change. The mission of
such an office should be to report on the climate for lesbian, bisexual
and gay employees and students at Pitt. And then to create change to
better that climate based on the results of the survey (or focus groups).
The mission of the office should be to address undergraduate and graduate
student needs as well as those of Pitt faculty. Important issues include,
but are not limited to, harassment of students on campus, nasty remarks
made in the classroom, graduate research topics related to lesbian and gay
topics not being approved in some departments, faculty without tenure
being told that they can not teach related courses. This office should
have connections with all important units on campus -- Human Resources,
Student Life, Student Activities Board, Student Health, the hospitals and
pharmacies, the counseling centers, Housing (including resident training
for dorms), Pitt Security, et al. And it should be actively involved in
annual orientation of new faculty, staff, and students. It is recommended
that this office use models of best practice developed at the University
of Michigan, Arizona State University, University of California, LA, and
other important institutions.
There is a need for the same type of Lesbian and Gay Studies Center as
already exists at many universities across the country. These centers
coordinate course offerings and programming across campuses in the same
way that Women's Studies Programs do. While the Pitt Women's Studies
Program has always encouraged study of lesbian and gay issues and included
programming important to lesbian and gay people on the Pitt campus, these
offerings need to be broadened during the 21st century so that offerings
become multi-disciplinary across the campus. It is important for a
university that believes in academic freedom to let it be known in all
departments that research on lesbian and gay issues is as much a part of
"Gender Studies" as are sex role and heterosexuality. Students are asking
for a major in Women's Studies and want a major in Lesbian and Gay Studies
too. While there are, currently, some course offerings relevant to
lesbian and gay studies, it is impossible to discover what they are
because there is no organized listing of them. Scholars at Pitt deserve
to be informed of what those course offerings are so they can be more
actively pursued than is currently possible and broadened in the future.
Attendees unanimously agreed that Pitt has failed to systematically
address diversity of all types across campus. While significant strides
have been made in recent years via diversity training, sensitivity
training, and other sorts of educational efforts, this training has rarely
included the issues faced daily by lesbian and gay students, staff and
faculty. We are as important on the Pitt campus as women, African
Americans, international people, disabled people and others. We demand
that we be invited and welcomed into the diversity dialogue on campus.
Pitt's concept of diversity must be broadened to include our serious needs
as soon as possible!
Lesbian, bisexual and gay students who live in campus housing have
important needs that must be addressed by this coming Fall Semester
(2004). New students must educated about these needs and educated so that
they learn that Pitt does not tolerate discriminatory behavior toward
their lesbian, bisexual and gay colleagues. This education must include
statistics on the rate of suicide among lesbian, bisexual and gay youth
because of the discriminatory way in which they are treated by the world,
especially people of their own age group. This information is supported
in the scholarly literature. Dorm Residents must have their own training
on how to cope with both lesbian or gay students on their floors and how
to deal with heterosexual students who are intolerant of and act out
toward their lesbian and gay colleagues.
Training on sexual harassment on campus must include same-sex sexual
harassment.
Diversity training in the classroom must be inclusive of lesbians and
gays. There can not be free discussion in the classroom when students are
teased or derogatory comments are made when gay or lesbian topics are
brought up for discussion – whether for faculty in the classroom or by
students. And both situations do currently happen in some classrooms at
Pitt.
Lesbian, bisexual and gay students need to have a source of information by
for and about the lesbian, bisexual and gay community at Pitt that
includes information on how to find a welcoming roommate, housing and easy
access to local newspapers about the gay community in Pittsburgh (piles
available in the William Pitt Union along with Pitt News, University
Times, City Paper, etc.)
It is crucial that the student counseling center have knowledgeable staff
that can offer appropriate support, referral and crisis intervention to
all students dealing with lesbian, bisexual and gay issues. This is an
urgent need because, currently, students report that they are referred to
fellow undergraduate students in the Rainbow Alliance! That organization
is run by young undergraduate students who are not professionals in
psychology or psychiatry and who are not paid to offer the professional
level service that all Pitt students deserve to have available to them on
this campus.
Health care for lesbian, bisexual and gay students is very much under par
on the Pitt campus. Doctors, nurses, and staff at student health services
must be welcoming and able to openly discuss the medical needs of all
students, including those who identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay or
trans-gendered. All patients must feel welcome and free to discuss any
medical need necessary with doctors, nurses and staff in campus health
facilities. Pitt student want a list of health providers, including
gender counselors, at Pitt who are knowledgeable about the medical issues
that are unique to their community.
There are trans-gendered students at Pitt and they need to have unisex
restrooms on campus.
An issue that is unique to trans-gendered students on campus involves the
need to officially change names. When a student updates a name, it should
only need to be done once and it should be reflected in all student
records. This should be able to happen for students who marry and change
names and also for trans-gendered students who change names. It is not
currently the case.
Student safety is of great concern to members of the lesbian, bisexual,
gay and trans-gendered community at Pitt. Often the target of harassment
or assault, many students in the community fear law enforcement officers
because literature shows that harassment and assault can be carried out
by law enforcement officers. All Pitt security officers, therefore, need
to be aware of that fear and be especially trained in how to work for the
benefit of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and trans-gendered students they are
hired to protect.
Career Services at Pitt must also become aware of unique needs of the
lesbian, bisexual, gay and trans-gendered students who will come to them
for career advice. These students will be asking questions about the
anti-discrimination protections offered and the organizational culture of
prospective employers. In addition, a student’s current name must be on
and stay on all letters of reference in Pitt Career Services files.