Office of the President

Meetings: 2009 (1.26) | The President’s Commission for LGBT Issues

Minutes of a meeting held on January 26, 2009, Crossland Room, Stamp Student Union.

Present: Gretchen Metzelaars (Chair), Joan Bellsey, Dan Hayes, Luke Jensen, Marilee
Lindemann, Christine Mahan, Mickey Parish, Larry Volz, Nancy Yeroshefsky, Carol Corneilse
(Graduate Assistant).

  1. Welcome new members
    1. Gretchen welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced herself as the new Chair. Mickey Parish introduced himself.
  2. Approval of minutes
    1. The minutes of the Commission's last meeting, held in Spring 2008, will be confirmed at the next meeting.
  3. Updates
    1. Office of LGBT Equity - Luke said the office was pleased to welcome Dr. Gabrie'l Atchison as Associate Director. He has encouraged her to spend her fIrst few weeks on campus meeting people. One of her major responsibilities will be the Rainbow Terrapin Network. Luke suggested that PCLGBTI members join the Network and attend the training sessions. He handed out a flyer with the dates for Spring 2009 sessions. The training focused on front-line university staff. There was a need to increase the number of trained students. The training slots have been scheduled at a time which the office hopes is more convenient for students. Ideally the students who sign up for training have some familiarity with the issues. A reception for the Rainbow Terrapin Network is scheduled for February 12. Members of the Commission were encouraged to attend.
    2. Domestic Partnership benefits - it was likely that this would be available for the Spring 2009 open season, but an announcement would only be made once the state legislature has approved the Governor's proposed budget for the higher education system.
    3. MICA - Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy deals with leadership issues in student organizations. Gretchen is Acting Director.
    4. Pride Alliance - has the biggest board in recent memory. Three members are freshmen. The main focus of their activities is Pride Month (April). The program for the month will include a film series.
    5. Office of Human Relations Programs - Mark Brimhall-Vargas will present a report at the Commission's next meeting.
    6. LGBT Studies - a lecture series and symposium is planned for April. Posters will be available soon. Lectures are tied to the fortieth anniversary of Stonewall. Marilee reported that the program had been through a Strategic Planning process, which had been a very useful exercise.
    7. Webpage for PCLGBTI - Carol and Gretchen will talk to Rob about updating the look of the page and the information that it contains. A lot of work is needed. There is some funding available from OIT (through the student technology fee). Luke added that Office of LGBT Equity website was out of date and funds would be needed to carry out an upgrade. Carol and Gretchen undertook to follow up on this.
  4. Review of recommendations from the 2005 Campus Climate Study
    1. Gretchen circulated copies of the recommendations and expanded recommendations. Luke observed that many of the recommendations had been implemented. However, with respect to a Communication Strategy, hardly any work had been done. Tuition remission was not in place yet either.
    2. Student attitudes were being tracked.
    3. There seem to be no opportunities for faculty and staff diversity training. Perhaps OHRP could be asked how this can be done. Gretchen would follow up with Maurissa Stone about the diversity component of the Leadership Development Institute. Maurissa is the new Assistant Director, Employee Training and Development.
    4. Luke said there was a need to include provision for trans gender employees in the Human Resources Code. Support for trans gender employees was needed.
  5. Awards - Gretchen drew attention to the awards, which are managed by the Office of LGBT Equity.
    1. Defender of Diversity
    2. Champion of Our Community
    3. Pride Award
    4. Luke added that selection is done by a small, but representative, group drawn from the LGBT Faculty and Staff Association. The possibility of the awards being a joint activity of the Commission and the LGBT Equity Office was mooted, but Luke stated that there was some concern about the process being 'top down' if that were to happen. It was a question of who was best able to evaluate nominations and make selections.
  6. Goals for the Commission
    1. Gretchen suggested that the Commission sponsor Brown Bag lunches once a month for faculty and staff. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea but no concrete proposals for topics were forthcoming.
  7. Meeting dates
    1. The Commission agreed to meet at the following times during Spring 2009:
      1. February 16,2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
      2. March 23, 2:00 - 3 :30 p.m.
      3. April 20, 2:00 - 3 :30 p.m.
      4. May 18, 2:00 - 3 :30 p.m.
    2. As soon as a venue for the meetings had been secured, Carol would circulate the information to the Commission.
  8. The meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.