LGBT Concerns Committee Minutes
Meeting Held: February 24, 2004, Room 3304 (Political Science Conference Room) in Turlington Hall from 9:00 - 10:30. Next Meeting: March 29: 10 AM. Last Meeting: April 24: Noon Lunch Meeting in Arredondo Room.
Committee Web site: http://www.aa.ufl.edu/committees/lgbtcc.htm
In attendance:
Linda Lamme, Chair
Bridget Franks
John Laibson
Jeana Mastrodicasa
Stu Schwartz
Committee Members: Linda Lamme, Chair, Paul Basler, Kendal
Broad, Kim Emery, Bridget Franks, Kenneth Kidd, John Laibson,
Frank Lane, Jeanna Mastrodicasa, Phyllis Meek, Jerry Notaro, Jennifer
Pearl, Jeff Powell, Stuart Schwartz, Amy Schwarzer, Orit Shechtman,
Tod Simmons, Ken Wald
Old Business
Domestic partner benefits Linda has a meeting with President Young,
Jerry Schaffer, VP for Administrative
Affairs, and Larry Ellis, Director of Personnel on Wednesday,
March 1 at 9 AM to talk about the need for domestic partner benefits
at UF.
Campus Survey Progress -- Ken reported that their committee sent
a general budget to Jackie Hart to fund the project.
Diversity training sessions -- Stu is delivering two workshops
for teachers in Florida at a COE conference on
Saturday, February 24 on the topic of making schools more friendly
for gay students.
Linda and her daughter, Laurel, are presenting at the National
Conference for School Personell in New Orleans on making schools
more accepting for children of gay and lesbian parents on March
31.
Web site report -- Jeana reported that Stu's graduate student,
Paul Curry, is helping gather information for the LGB Resources
website that will be housed at www.dso.ufl.edu in student services.
There will be links to other UF websites and other outside websites.
If you have a site you think should be connected, e-mail Jeana
at jmastro@dso.ufl.edu.
Friends report -- Jeana reported that the Friends held a reception
in the Friends of Music Room on February 10th that was a big success.
Megan Silbert has given the group life. She has updated the files
and created a listserv for the Friends. Megan developed a campus
map with pins for each of the friends' locations.
FIFA Report -- It is time to contact members of the house and
senate committees to urge them to pass the domestic partner bill
out of committee and onto the senate and house floors.
Center for Excellence in Teaching -- Stu reported that during
Gala Week, the Center for Excellence in Teaching is sponsoring
Dr. Matthew Oulette, assistant professor and assistant director
of the Teaching Excellence Center at the University of Massachusetts
in Amherst to conduct a workshop on making courses more gay inclusive.
Dr. Oulette will meet with students in Reitz Union on April 13
from 4:30 - 6:00 to get their views on what needs to be done.
He will have dinner with our committee that evening (final plans
determined at our next meeting), and conduct a two-hour workshop
for faculty and graduate students on April 14. We diescussed
how our committee could support this work. The Center will send
out a flyer advertising the session. We decided that our committee
would sponsor a folded flyer like the one that environmental education
sent out stating "How Green are Your Classes?" A colored,
folded flyer for faculty. Jeanna is working with a doctoral student
who will create and distribute the flyer. Jeana will also try
to have an announcement of the event sent via e-mail to all deans
and department chairs asking them to urge their faculty and doctoral
students to attend the session.
Scholarships and number of fund for Florida Foundation contributions
-- Stu will send our members and members of the Rainbow Alliance
the number of the UFF fund to which contributions can be made
for
our scholarship fund.
Listserv -- Stu is setting up a listserv for committee members
to make it easier for us to communicate with each other. He will
post the UFF number on that list. First message.
Faculty/Staff/Student Social during GALA -- We decided that we
would ask the Rainbow Alliance to fund the
social this year and if they cannot provide funding, committee
members will. LGBSU cannot spend money on food.
Alliances -- We reviewed the way our committee maintains alliances
(and reaches out to other UF committees) and decided that we needed
to be a bit more systematic about our relationships with these
other groups. We ask that committee members who have had fewer
opportunities to be active so far this year sign up (e-mail Linda)
to be liasons between these organizations and our committee.
In most cases with University committees this amounts to attending
one meeting of the committee and letting them know we are here
and ready to support any effort they can make to make our campus
more accepting for GLBT students, staff and faculty. If there
is no name by the group it means we need someone to perform this
role.
LGBSU -- we will invited Alex Alonso and Derek Gilbert, co-chairs
of GLBSU to our meetings as guests and ask that they become members
of the committee next year.
Rainbow Alliance -- We will invite Charles Brown to our meetings and recommend that he or other members of the Alliance join our committee next year.
Human Rights Council - FIFA - John Laibson and Amy Schwarzer
Committee on Sexism and Homophobia - Phyllis Meek
JW Reitz Union Board -- Stu Schwartz
UF Athletic Association Board - Stu Schwartz
Academic Freedom, Tenure, Professional Relations and Standards Committee – Stu
Council on Affirmative Action – Kendal
Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance Committee
Constitution Committee Curriculum Committee General Education
Council Honorary Degrees, Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Memorials
Committee Senate Nominating Committee Student Petitions Committee
University Libraries Committee Other Groups -- we had talked about linking with Hispanic and Black faculty/staff/student groups