LGBTQ+ community at CMU: Needs, resources

“Needs across the community are going to vary because everybody's identity and everyone's needs are drastically different,” said Shannon Jolliff-Dettore, director of the Office of LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs at CMU. 

Nevertheless, the most commonly discussed needs were the feel of community, gender inclusive bathrooms, name changing and housing options. 

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Community

Teagan Wertz is student assistant at the Office of LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs. She said working at the office helps her build community, meet new people and work with different student organizations.

“It's important for everybody to feel accepted and have a place where they can come and be themselves,” Wertz said.

Ash Kasper is another student assistant in the office. 

“Community for me is just having a support system around you and just having people that are able to have your back,” Kasper said.

Both Wertz and Kasper said it is difficult sometimes for LGBTQ+ students to find their group of friends on campus. However, they said there are a lot of resources and opportunities for that. 

“There's community wherever you look for it,” Kasper said.

For example, Kasper said, the community can be found in student organizations. 

Sophia Scarnecchia is a diversity and inclusion chair at Spectrum, a student organization for LGBTQ+ students.

Scarnecchia said Spectrum holds a lot of events in cooperation with the Office of LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs and oSTEM, a student organization for LGBTQ+ students in STEM majors. Some events include the Lavender Graduation, an event to celebrate LGBTQ+ students graduating, Pride Prom and the Homecoming parade. Scarnecchia said Spectrum also holds events at pumpkin patches and restraurants. 

According to Engage Central, Spectrum meets from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Scarnecchia said regular meetings are educational and informative. 

Wertz said the Office of LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs also provides LGBTQ+ students an opportunity to have community. 

Students voiced their opinions during the LGBTQ+ summit that took place Jan. 20. Jolliff-Dettore said students were wanting to have a consistent time that they know they could stop at the office and get the support that they needed. 

Now, anybody can come into the Office of LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs during office hours, and have somebody from the community to provide help, Jolliff-Dettore said. 

The hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.

“It's like community building time, hangout time, study time, anything you need from that space,” Wertz said. “You can walk in here and have at least one other member of the LGBTQ community with you.”

The initiative will continue to improve, Jolliff-Dettore said. For example, sometimes at from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays she will be holding events for the students at LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs office in Bovee University Center 108B. 

As for the events organized by the office in the near future, the “All Types of Love” event is coming this Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Wertz said the event will have a guest speaker and food.

“To help build the community,” Wertz said, “I would love to see more community partnerships with the office. For example, a collaboration with Mount Pleasant businesses and the Office of LGBTQ Services and Gender Equity Programs to have a LGBTQ focused event that was open to the community and not just students.” 

The most important thing in order to support LGBTQ+ students in finding their community is to listen, Kasper said. 

“Just keep listening,” Kasper said. “The student summit that we did was a good example of how to listen to our students. You can keep supporting by listening and asking to hear what their needs are.”

For example, at the LGBTQ+ summit, where students voiced needs and faculty listened, one of the other main needs discussed was the signage for gender inclusive bathrooms. 

Gender-inclusive bathrooms

A gender-inclusive bathroom is a single person bathroom that is not gendered, Wertz said.

“Bathrooms are important because there are people who don't identify with one gender or the other,” Wertz said. “There's been a lot of controversy surrounding what bathrooms people who identify as specific genders should use... They can actually use the (gender-inclusive) bathroom without having to fear of getting ridiculed or being discriminated against is really important just so that people feel safe and supportive on campus.”

At the summit, the students raised a point that there are not enough gender-inclusive bathrooms and that they don’t know where they are. 

“There's no signage anywhere, anything that indicates that they exist,” Wertz said. “You have to know somebody who knows somebody who knows where they are.”

Wertz said the solution to this problem would be signs that indicate locations of gender-inclusive bathrooms.

CMU’s website provides a list of where the bathrooms are located:

• Barnes Halls - Ground Floor
• Beddow Hall - First Floor
• Campbell Hall - Ground Floor
• F/E/W - Ground Floor
• Kessler Hall - First Floor
• Kulhavi Hall - Ground Floor
• Larzelere Hall - First Floor
• Merill Hall - First Floor
• Sweeney Hall - Ground Floor
• Thorpe Hall - Ground Floor
• Woldt Hall - Lower Floor
• Anspach Hall - Ground Floor
• Biosciences - Every floor
• Bovee UC - Lower Level and Main Floor
• Brooks Hall - Ground Floor
• Bush Theatre - Ground Floor
• Health Professions - Ground Floor
• College of Medicine - Every floor
• Powers Hall - Ground Floor
• Ronan Hall - Third Floor
• SAC - Lower Level
• Sloan Hall - Ground Floor
• Smith Hall - Ground Floor
• John Kulhavi Events Center - Main Level

Jolliff-Dettore also said that there is a CMU policy that if there is a “major renovation” in a building, a gender-inclusive bathroom will be built in.

Name changes

On CMU‘s website, there is a name change form. There is also a list of systems where a name is changed by default and systems where it does not change automatically, for example, a Blackboard (can be updates manually) and transcripts.  

“As somebody who has gone through the name change process, I think the biggest thing is just visibility and making sure students are aware of how to go about it,” Kasper said. 

Kasper said a person can find a name change form at the registrar’s website, fill in the information and if “it is your preferred name and not a legal name change, you make that indication.” 

Wertz said the students at the summit had many issues to discuss regarding name changes, including how name changes don’t update in the university’s system manually. Students also had issues when letters were mailed to their home with their name change, but their family did not know that they have changed their name, Wertz said. 

Jolliff-Dettore said if students have technological problems with the name form, they can reach out to the Register's Office or the Office of Information Technology.

“The folks on the technology side have a 24 hours turnaround time, so they are very responsive to the forms that come through,” Jolliff-Dettore said. “They are very intentional to prioritize those over like other workflow things that come in. And there's lots of communication across their system.” 

Jolliff-Dettore also said there is a committee that addresses the need for name changes. The head of the committee is Shawna Patterson-Stephens, vice president of the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and inclusion. 

Housing 

LGBTQ+ students also recognized a need for housing accomodations at the summit.  

Wertz said some of the students were asking for an inclusive floor for LGBTQ+ student because of safety concerns. 

“People are a little bit scared because of their gender identities or sexualities (that) they're going to be discriminated against or something like that is going to happen to them,” Wertz said. “The idea of having a separate floor is so that people's neighbors can't do things like that to them, but then it raises the safety concerns as well.

“I think that the root of the idea, which is inclusion, is really important and necessary. It's necessary for students to feel supported in their housing. I just don't know how that would look right now.”

For now, Jolliff-Dettore said when students are applying for housing, they are able to request a gender-inclusive room. Students can self-identify a roommate or go through a matching process, she said. 

Jolliff-Dettore also said during the application, students can use her contact information listed on the form if they have any issues or change their mind about their name choice. 

“I think overall, housing is very quick to accommodate the needs of our students,” Jolliff-Dettore said. 

To contact Jolliff-Dettore, call (989)774-3637 or email jolli1sm@cmich.edu.