minutes From: Linda Lamme [lammel@edu15.coe.ufl.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 7:16 AM
To: ufcuban@ufl.edu; jmastro@ufl.edu; kemery@english.ufl.edu; barradas@rll.ufl.edu; pmeek@dso.ufl.edu; oshechtm@hp.ufl.edu; kenwald@polisci.ufl.edu; kendal@soc.ufl.edu; akwolfe@ufl.edu; hernandez@law.ufl.edu; cbrown@GNV.IFAS.UFL.EDU; kmf451@ufl.edu; galloway@ufl.edu; carloshernandez@crc.ufl.edu; kjones58@ufl.edu; richs%housing.ufl.edu.UFNateDawg@aol.com; beammeup@ufl.edu
Subject: minutes
Minutes
LGBT Concerns Committee
September 26, 2001

Welcome
We welcomed new members Nate Barnes, Charles Brown, John Denny, and Richard Senker.

Dean of Student Services, Dr. Gene Zdziarski
Dean Zdziarski explained his goals, one of which was to broaden the discussion of diversity to be more inclusive than just African-American and Hispanic and to include LGBT people.
We shared our concern that the Resource Center be located in a better, more private place and receive human services, and eventually to hire a director who can do diversity training.  He explained that with budgets as they are, this year is probably not the year these changes will occur.
We discussed having Student Services more aggressively work with the University of Florida Foundation to obtain outside resources for the Resource Center and our Scholarship program.  He suggested that we prepare a business profile articulating our needs and a list of target alumni from whom we might solicit such funding.  John is going to find the material that Roni Sanlo left when she was here last year and get a letter from her stating the importance of soliciting from LBGT graduates.  Charles will lead the efforts to provide the profile needed by Dean Zdziarski.

Scholarship Fund
We discussed the fact that last year we gave two $500 scholarships, one for LGBT service and one for LGBT research.  Our funds are depleted.  Amanda will write a brief statement of need which we can then share with June Kurtz, the fundraiser for Student Services as a part of the UFF packet, but also e-mail or mail to local groups in hopes of soliciting enough money for the call for scholarships to go out by November. Amanda will include the UFF number of the scholarship fund so that individuals will know how to contribute specifically to that fund.

Assistant Provost, Dr. Joe Glover
Dr. Glover explained that there are general harassment rules of the University which might be applied to harassment due to sexual orientation and gender identity and explained the more formal procedures that are in place for sexual harassment, which, he stated work well, probably because of the workshops on sexual harassment required of all employees. He outlined the two routes available for protesting harassment due to sexual orientation or gender identity.  Faculty can grieve through their supervisors or the supervisors of their supervisors and ultimately to Dr. Glover. Students grieve through John Denny in Student Services. All these grievances are part of the public record.  In the case of sexual harassment the identities of individuals are hidden, but in all other cases of harassment they are not.  Since large numbers of GLBT faculty and staff are not out, these procedures for grieving harassment would automatically out them in a community where there is no legal protection for them.  The counseling center is the only place where sexual orientation can be discussed without formal written documentation.  Dr. Glover said that he would ask general counsel if LGBT harassment reports could be made anonymously. He explained there is also a university non-retaliation policy for all forms of harassment reporting. We suggested that the information on reporting harassment needs to be made more public and that the administration write an article for the University Digest stating that harassment in any form will not be tolerated and the procedures for grieving harassment.  He asked that we help write such an article.  Linda and John will work on a draft and share it with Dr. Glover as an article seems to fit in well with his focus on broadening the concept of diversity on campus.

LGBT Cabinet
Alex reported that for the first time on this campus same sex unions will be honored the same as married unions - in the Infirmary. As of next semester LGBT partners will receive the same service at the same cost as spouses do. To apply for partner status couples need evidence of having lived together or been financially interdependent for a year.  Congratulations to Alex for this big step of progress toward equality for LGBT students.

Campus Survey
Ken reported that the results are not yet out, but that he is continuing to point out that according to the students, LGBT students receive more discriminatory actions than any other minority group on campus.

Nondiscrimination Clause and Partner Benefits
Alex reported that at this point the new board has limited powers and will not be totally empowered to make decisions until the first of the year. We agreed that it is best not to urge the President to take these issues to the board until they are better informed about our campus and have complete powers to deal with our requests. 

Gator Gay Straight Alliance
Mike and Scott reported that the GGSA has launched a central website for all LGBT resources at  http://affiliates.aa.ufl.edu/lgbt

The next project for the website is to provide a way to anonymously report incidents of harassment on campus.

They have been an active group with tabling, designing a T-shirt, and conducting sensitivity training for resident assistants.  Future events include a car wash on October 6 at the Steak and Shake on SW 13th and 16th, and preparing for Pride in October.  More information is on their website. www.gatorgsa.org/shirts/shirts.html

They invited committee members to march with their organization in the Pride Parade on October 20.

--
Linda Leonard Lamme
Professor of Education
School of Teaching and Learning
University of Florida
PO Box 117048
Gainesvile, FL 32611-7048
(352) 392-9191 x251