The allied efforts of the Student Union and Boston University Spectrum will climax today when the coalition formally proposes adding sexual orientation to the University’s anti-discrimination policy.
The more-than-2,500 word proposal will be delivered to President Jon Westling, with carbon copies sent to Chancellor John Silber and Board of Trustees Chairman Earle Cooley.
The proposal asks the administration to further equal rights by protecting students, faculty and staff from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, according to Spectrum President and College of Arts and Sciences junior Emily Lyman.
Lyman, along with Union Vice President for Safety Services Patrick Donovan and Union Vice President for Public Relations Dan Feder, drafted the proposal in February and plan to deliver it today after months of planning. The proposal wasn’t written until now, according to Donovan, because time was needed to look for support from students.
“One, we wanted to put together a very sound proposal that took into account all the arguments made,” said Donovan, a School of Education senior. “Two, we wanted to mobilize student support. That is why its coming out now and not back in September.”
And although amending the policy is an important first step, Lyman said the proposal also includes three other recommendations in order to ensure protection.
The first two requests are to add sexual orientation to the policy and to include it in discussions of both diversity and discrimination or harassment in the Student Lifebook and University handbooks.
The third request asks for further Resident Assistant training that would enable RAs to react more effectively with problems arising from sexual orientation discrimination.
“While RAs are going through their sensitivity training they’ll get information specifically regarding sexual orientation conflicts,” Lyman said. “A lot of roommate issues that deal with sexual orientation are brushed off as personality conflicts. Hopefully, with training, they will be able to help.”
The fourth request, which Lyman deemed a “long shot” in terms of acceptance, focuses on faculty members who are involved in same-sex relationships. It suggests sensitivity toward sexual orientation be applied to all aspects of University policy, as has sensitivity toward sex, race ethnicity and religion including the revision of benefits packages for employees to include same-sex domestic partners.
“The non-discrimination policy does include the faculty as well, so we thought we should be very thorough and try to apply our proposal to all aspects of the BU community,” Lyman said. “Dan [Feder], Pat [Donovan] and I felt we couldn’t have a proposal like this without it.”
However, Lyman said the third and fourth requests were contingent on the acceptance of the first two, and will probably be added sometime in the future, if at all.
“The proposal also rebutted four main arguments made by the administration in the past as reasons to not include sexual orientation in the policy,” Donovan said.
“This way, we are showing them, this is why you need to do this,” Donovan added. “I think we dealt with the past arguments very rationally. What makes the most sense is to change the policy.”
The proposal rebutted the argument that sexual orientation discrimination doesn’t occur frequently at BU by citing the current policy makes it difficult to accurately report the number of instances. Therefore, the frequency of such events cannot be determined.
Also, the proposal denounced the claim that since BU’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students are covered by Massachusetts Law, there is no need to include it in the non-discrimination policy. After contacting the American Civil Liberties Union, the proposal states, Spectrum and the Union feels it is unfair to include sex, race, religion and other categories — which are covered by city, state, as well as federal law — yet still leave out sexual orientation.
The proposal continued to thwart opposing arguments that sexual orientation would encompass pedophilia and bestiality by citing other universities and the state of Massachusetts, all of which include it in their non-discrimination policies.
Spectrum members said they are optimistic of a prompt reply, but weary of an affirmative one.
“I expect to get an answer within a week,” said Spectrum Vice President Jasmine Gillen-Smith. “Optimistically, that would be a good time range. I would like to hear them sound open to the possibility of changing it.”
However, Lyman said she was skeptical on the seriousness the proposal will receive from the administration.
If the proposal is denied, Gillen-Smith said, they are prepared for a fight.
“We are prepared to keep working on it,” Gillen-Smith said. “The proposal is just the first step. Pessimistically, we expect to keep fighting for it.”
“Spectrum is planning on a letter-writing campaign, which will begin on Tuesday in the GSU,” Lyman said. “Students will be able to voice their support by signing a letter, and the letters will be sent to Westling.”
But, Donovan said he doesn’t want to be forced to enact further action, and is optimistic BU will amend the policy.
“I think that what makes the most sense from an administrative stand point is to change the policy,” Donovan said. “It can be quick and simple. That’s the best way to do it.”
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