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Promoting LGBTQ Inclusiveness In Higher Education

Rainbow Flag
By Ludovic Bertron from New York City, Usa via Wikimedia Commons

The College of Southern Nevada is stepping up efforts to make students in the LGBTQ community feel more included and safe.

On Friday, the College of Southern Nevada announced the creation of a series of "safe zones" – spaces where members of the campus' LGBTQ community can find resources available to them.

CSN says its program is modeled after those at many other colleges and universities throughout the country.

The "safe zones" also include training for faculty and staff to help them better address and respond to issues facing the LGBTQ community.

Owen Pillion is a professor of communication and the co-chair of CSN’s Queer Inclusive College Committee, or QICC. He told KNPR’s State of Nevada that under the program faculty and staff will be able to volunteer to undergo training then they will put a sticker on their office door indicating they’re a "safe zone" for the LGBTQ community.

Pillion said the program is providing help to an underserved community. He said if you search LGBTQ on the campus website, you’ll find very little.

 “The college has looked at that as a short coming," he said. "Because we have 40,000 students, we know that we have students in our classes that identify as LGBTQ."

He said the program brings the issues associated with sexual orientation and gender identity on the radar screens of faculty members.

“[They should] be aware of who our students are and reach out to them because they do face unique circumstances that can be different than other students” Pillion said.

He points even the language that we use can make someone feel uncomfortable or isolated. "Alternative lifestyle" was once an acceptable phrase, but now it sounds old fashioned.

Jennifer Basquiat is also a communication professor and member of QICC. She said that the response from students both in the LGBTQ community and those who identify as allies of the community has been overwhelming positive.

She notes there have been a small but vocal group of professors who expressed concern that it would not be voluntary for professors.

“There are some professors that are concerned they will be forced to create a safe zone and they feel uncomfortable for a variety of reasons,” Basquiat said.

Basquiat said she has been teaching at CSN for 16 years and has seen the acceptance of the LGBTQ change in that time. Even though the acceptance of community has grown, she believes students need the safe zones more than ever.

Jose Bettencourt, the media director of Spectrum, a UNLV LGBTQ student group, agreed, and said these types of spaces and groups help both members of campuses' LGBTQ and larger communities. Bettencourt, who does not identify as being part of the traditional gender binary, expressed difficulty in making sure professors and fellow students recognized this.

"It's been hard to get professors to respect gender pronouns, especially because a lot of professors assume gender -- a lot of students as well," Bettencourt said.

Spectrum, for example, has helped bridge that gap, according to Bettencourt, and helps promote awareness among different members of the UNLV community.

Owen Pillion, CSN professor of communication and co-chair of CSN's Queer Inclusive College Committee (QICC);  Jennifer Basquiat, CSN professor of communication and member of QICC;  Jose Bettencourt, media director, UNLV Spectrum

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Casey Morell is the coordinating producer of Nevada Public Radio's flagship broadcast State of Nevada and one of the station's midday newscast announcers. (He's also been interviewed by Jimmy Fallon, whatever that's worth.)