The university response to the recent alleged hate crime assault must be broad and multifaceted, said Dean of Students Mark Bandas.
“We must move beyond responding to such incidents to creating an environment in which they are unimaginable,” he said. “We will redouble our efforts to build understanding and acceptance in our community.”
University institutions and programs such as the Community Creed, Safe Zone, Vanderbilt Visions, Project Dialogue and Intercultural Programs, and the advocacy of multicultural organizations, programs and centers will provide elements of an educational response, Bandas said.
But these efforts must be broadened to include student recruitment and alumni development, he said, suggesting that inviting GLBT alumni to visit campus might help increase tolerance.
Lambda President Klint Peebles said he thought this idea might help, adding that his organization has wanted to establish a GLBT alumni association for more than a year.
“Everyone has the potential to do great things; your sexual identity doesn’t matter,” Peebles said. “I think for people to see the effectiveness of GLBT members of society would be beneficial.”
Peebles also suggested adding language in university policy that specifically protects transgender students, hiring a full-time GLBT coordinator, giving GLBT issues a voice on the chancellor search committee and expanding Safe Zone training.
Vanderbilt Student Government President Cara Bilotta said all VSG members will be strongly encouraged to take part in Safe Zone training.
She and former Lambda President Kristen VanDenBossche already had met this year to discuss an increase in educational programming meant to promote awareness of GLBT issues.
“GLBT issues have been ‘hush-hush,’ but they need to be out in the open if we are going to increase acceptance and increase tolerance,” Bilotta said. “I had hoped our collaboration would be more proactive, but because of this incident, we have been forced to be reactionary.”
Peebles also said Lambda would work toward making its Drag Show and other events more open to all students, increasing interaction between heterosexual and GLBT students.
And this interaction should be mandatory, said the graduate assault victim.
“I personally feel that developing interpersonal relationships with people is the best way to begin to understand their struggles as members of the human family of which we are all a part,” he said.
This interaction must be more than “a seminar during student orientation or one small chapter in a social movements course,” the victim said.
“Repeated and extensive opportunities to develop relationships with sexual minority individuals must be facilitated so that there is time enough to get to know us as real people, not just ambassadors of the queer community,” he said. “When you find that you can talk to us about more than our sexuality, there's very little reason to fear or hate us. You may actually find that we make very good friends.”
