Transforming Siena College

 

The results of a 2016-2017 Siena Student Climate Survey reported that 100% of Siena transgender students expressed that they had personally experienced bias/harassment/discrimination at our college. 

Knowing this, I feel terrible. How can we turn this around so that not only are our transgender students not harassed, but embraced? There are infrastructure and policy issues that we can and should change. These changes go far beyond changing the signs on our restrooms (although I think we should do that too). For instance, as far as I know Siena is not among the colleges that cover transition-related medical expenses under student health insurance, nor among the colleges that have gender inclusive housing in which students can have a roommate of any gender (cf. Siena's Transgender Student Housing Policy). Of course, I would be happy to be corrected on that if others know otherwise! 

There are aspects of classroom norms, curriculum, and campus climate that can be more trans-positive. As I've already discussed, this isn't necessarily as simple as asking students to declare their pronouns on the first day of class (see also this piece in Insider Higher Ed from Rachel N. Levin). The following questions from Jaekel and Holmes (2019, pdf) suggest further aspects to explore: 

What identities are included and excluded in the course materials? (84)

How will instances of discrimination be handled, both on the part of students and the faculty?  

If a mistake is made, how can we engage in recovery and transform it into a learning moment?  (85)

Specifically, I think it would be really good to come together as a community and discuss these questions and how we, together, want to answer them. Perhaps this process could involve a community-wide forum.

There's also the issue of athletics. Do you know what the NCAA Policy on Transgender Student-Athlete Participation says? Here's part of it (p. 13):

The following policies clarify participation of transgender student-athletes undergoing hormonal treatment for gender transition: 

1. A trans male (FTM) student-athlete who has received a medical exception for treatment with testosterone for diagnosed Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for purposes of NCAA competition may compete on a men’s team, but is no longer eligible to compete on a women’s team without changing that team status to a mixed team. 

2. A trans female (MTF) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.

According to this article from Outsports in August 2020, “The NCAA is working with national and international groups as it reviews its current transgender athlete policy”. Working further on this policy seems wise to me. In particular, I'm worried that tying eligibility to diagnosis unhelpfully intrenches thinking about trans folks as mentally ill. 

In the abstract, the work to be done can be stated simply: create communities built on mutual respect, and continually re-commit to learning from each other. I've tried to contribute to this work in our Philosophy and Gender course by reflecting on my own approach towards gender identities in the class community and on the syllabus. I would also like to see us put some of what we have learned to work beyond our course, e.g. by helping to craft resources for the GSA and by investigating the college's gender-related policies and revising them as necessary. On a more basic level, we need to identify the aspects of our culture that allow harassment of trans folks in the first place, and ditch them.