Office of the President

Meetings: 2002 (4.8) | The President’s Commission for LGBT Issues

Meeting Minutes for Monday, April 8th, 2002

Present: Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Paul Dillon, Vicky Foxworth, Deb Grandner, James Harris, Nancy Harris, Luke Jensen, Karen Kimmell, Raul Medina, Ian Savoy, Robert Waters, Linda Valli, Jeff VanCollins, Nancy Yeroshefsky

Update / Actions since last LGBT Commission meeting:

  • Board of Regents vote on Domestic Partner Benefits has successfully been postponed until July (in order to avoid repeat veto of Maryland Legislature)
  • Vicky’s meeting with Dr. Mote has been postponed regarding conflating adjunct faculty benefits with domestic partner benefits
  • Commission Chairs meeting with Dr. Mote if Friday April 19th
  • Topics of Discussion include:
    • Commission website maintenance
    • Lack of diversity in upper level administration, i.e., possible method of “growing our own leaders” from the inside
    • Identifying and addressing issues where Commissions overlap
    • Domestic Partner Benefits & daycare
    • Clarifying role of Commission / Commission Chairs with Dr. Mote
  • Chuck Middleton (openly gay) is being promoted to President of ??? University
    • Middleton is the current / soon to be former Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs for University System of Maryland
  • Brit Kirwan is returning to Maryland as Chancellor of the University System of Maryland
  • Pride Days 2002 are currently taking place ( April 1st – April 19th)
    • LGBT Diversity Panel on Wednesday April 10th from 6:30p – 8:30p in 0119 Reckform Armory
    • Vicky will contact Serena Mann (UMTV) to see if it can be videotaped for display on the Flagship Channel

Discussion:

“The Art of Kissing” -- Sponsored by SEE [Student Entertainment Enterprise] Review Board

  • Vicky informed the Commission that there were concerns about this program from a woman [lesbian] who participated in the program and felt discriminated against
  • Presenter utilized stereotypes to address types of kissing supposedly carried out by various cultures / ethnicities
  • Referred to one lesbian participant [partner of the Complainant] as a man throughout the program
  • Forced “masculine” appearing woman to take on the role of a man despite objections from the lesbian couple
  • Diamondback used photograph of “feminine” lesbian being kissed by a man as cover photo
  • How (or Should) the Commission respond?
    • Letter to presenter regarding his material
    • Letter / meeting with Marsha Stevens-Guentzler to discuss incident and SEE’s involvement – Vicky will call Marsha to schedule a meeting
    • Make sure the students involved are receiving appropriate support

Training Videos – Luke Jensen

  • Luke presented a hand-out of possible videos to utilize for training purposes
  • Videos fall mainly within time categories of 30 minutes or 1 hour
  • Commission members agreed to break into groups between now and next commission meeting and view three videos for possible training use:
    • All God’s Children – Nancy H., Nancy Y., Karen, Ian, & Mark
      • Mark will coordinate the viewing of the video to be shown in his office
    • Homophobia in the Workplace – Paul, Nancy Y., & Karen
      • Karen will coordinate the viewing of the video
    • DeColores: Lesbianas y Gays Latinos: … -- Vicky, Ian, Rob, & Raul
      • Raul will coordinate the viewing of the video
  • Coordinators will inform Vicky and/or Jeff of the date, time and location of the video viewing so that other commission members can join the group if their schedules permit
  • Luke has welcomed commission members to come to the resource room during hours of operation to view the video at their leisure if their schedules conflict with the coordinated video viewings
  • Commission members are reminded to view the video(s) with a critical eye and gather a list of questions / concerns / highlights and/or missing elements to be discussed at the next commission meeting

Recruitment & Hiring Guidelines

  • Major discussion over purpose (function) of asking optional sexual orientation question on Equal Employment Opportunity cards
    • Possible misuse of information
    • Utility of the data for demographic information, promotion of climate awareness
    • Domestic Partner benefits
    • When should the data, if collected, get back to search committees? Will it (should it) be before or after candidates come to campus and are selected/hired?
  • It was suggested that Roberta Coates attend the next commission meeting with an update on the progress of updating the cards to reflect new non-discrimination regulations and possible inclusion of sexual orientation question
  • For Equity Officer manual, can we identify national journals that focus on LGBT issues / awareness?
    • Luke will bring a draft of a list to the next commission meeting
    • Most journals / organizations are regional in nature and many do not advertise employment opportunities
    • Search committees must seriously weigh costs / benefits of publishing in some national LGBT publications
  • Find more positive way to address / relay the University’s pursuit of domestic partners benefits to employment candidates
  • Remove conference rooms from locations where safe space cards should be prominently displayed
  • Remove “significant other” from list of pronouns to utilize that do not have heterosexual connotations
  • Highlight illegality of asking marital status of employment candidates

Next Meeting: Monday, 6th May 2002 from 3p – 5p in Nyumburu Cultural Center