A voice for transgender students

Dialogue continues regarding representation and accommodations for transgender students

Lilyana Espinoza, Angelo Tharp | The USD Vista

The saying goes that college is an opportunity to discover oneself. For some students who identify as transgender, the opportunity to find oneself during these years can be impactful, yet can also lead to various challenges.

Senior Baby Hood considers the freedom of college as a reason why she realized her assigned gender was not the gender with which she identifies.

“Because you are away from some of those engrained ideas from parents and religion, college was the first time I had the freedom to explore those things and learn terminology and be around other queer people,” Hood said. “It was refreshing to go to college and meet people who identify in so many different ways, and that helped me discover who I was.”

Hood said she is confident in who she is and was willing to find resources on campus to assist in her transition. However, she understands that for students who are not as confident in their identities, finding the resources available on campus may be difficult.

“I think that (Residential Life and Title IX) should be marketing themselves so that they could do more by being more public about the services that they do provide,” Hood said. “I had to ask around for these services to be provided, whereas someone who wasn’t as comfortable — especially for people who were questioning their gender, or uncertain, or they are not out — it would be much more comfortable if these services were more public with what they did.”

At the University of San Diego, there are resources on campus to assist transgender students such as the Title IX office in Maher Hall room 101. Helen Kaiser Smith, Deputy Title IX and Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Coordinator,  explained the responsibilities of the Title IX office.

“Our office oversees the university’s compliance with Title IX,” Smith said. “Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in institutions that receive federal funding. Even though USD is a private institution, students use financial aid and so we are recipients of federal funding. Title IX also covers cases of sexual misconduct. Sexual harassment is a form of sex-based discrimination, so that is why we work with students who are impacted by sexual violence, whether that is sexual harassment or sexual assault.”

Smith continued to explain Title IX’s specific relationship in helping transgender students.

“We work with students who are transgender and non-binary,” Smith said. “Title IX has been extended to apply to students who fall within those categories, to make sure that they are free from discrimination at the university and connecting them with resources and facilitating accommodations for them so they are able to continue on in their education and feel comfortable while they are doing that.”

Smith explained that the Title IX office works with various departments on campus depending on what kind of help the student is seeking.

“Our work with the students are shaped by what they would like,” Smith said. “There is no checklist or plan that we will always execute when we have a student who comes into our office. But some typical offices we would work with would be Residential Life, if the student is seeking any type of housing accommodations, the Registrar’s Office and ITS if they are pursuing a change to their name. We have also worked with different academic offices such as reaching out to professors if a student would like to go by a certain name that isn’t their legal name.”

Smith said she believes that students are starting to take more advantage of the resources available because more students are coming in to the office seeking help.

“I am not sure if the number of students who identify as transgender and non-binary is increasing, but I think if anything students are becoming more aware of the resources and accommodations that are available to them,” Smith said. “And then they may be more willing to access those.”

Brandon McCreary, assistant director of Residential Administration, discussed the process of housing assignments.

“There aren’t any specific policies that are laid out specifically for transgender students when it comes to housing,” McCreary said. “The main policy that I think applies is our Intervisitation Cohabitation Policies: where we place all of our students, based on their (assigned) sex and gender, into housing. And for us that comes from information that is filtered in through our main university system, that is filtered down into our housing system, and that comes, originally, from the common application.”

McCreary explained the accommodations regarding Title IX and housing for students who wish to change their gender on the common application.

“With the changes to the common application — if a student identifies differently than their birth gender, that gets flagged for admissions when they apply and gets passed onto the Title IX office,” McCreary said. “Our Title IX director can reach out to those students and see what USD can do to support them and specifically what does that mean for housing, and then they can connect me with those students.”

Theology and Religious Studies professor Evelyn Kirkley is the advisor of PRIDE on campus and believes that some students who identify as transgender face a challenge when it comes to reaching out for assistance — the need to disclose themselves in order to get help.

“If you specify the kind of housing you need and want, (the university) will do their best to get it for you, but the issue is always having to disclose why you want (different housing),” Kirkley said.

Smith responded to this issue of students seeking help but not wanting to disclose their situation.

“The Title IX Office publishes information on its website for students interested in seeking support, resources, and accommodations,” Smith said. “Our office also presents to various students and employees across campus so the campus community knows that our office is a resource.  Students are not required to share information with our office in order to receive assistance.  Students who have questions about resources and accommodations through Title IX are welcome to contact our office to gather information about their options without disclosing their gender identity.”

Luke LaCroix, director of residential administration, stated that all of the residential staff are trained as allies of diversity for those students who are hesitant to ask for help.

LaCroix mentioned that timing is a difficult factor to combat when helping students who identify as transgender.

“Something that is out of our control is timing and understanding the developmental process,” LaCroix said. “If a student arrives here in September and has identified as one sex on the application and then there is a sense of personal development, and they have an identity difference later on, it could be like mid-November. So space for that student to be in a place where they feel comfortable is really based on availability. In the event that they want to move spaces, timing is good. If a student enrolls at USD and they contact us, or self identify on the common app, then we have more opportunity to meet their needs and connect with them.”

A change in identifying with a different gender was made with the adoption of the banner system, according to LaCroix.

“The university has adopted its banner application so that students can change their identified sex,” LaCroix said. “And we work with students who are within those circumstances who might want to live based on that (preferred gender). I think that was a big change. And I think this is an opportunity to work with students and meet with them individually, to ensure we are meeting their needs as well as their identity.”

Kirkley recognized that people need to be more open in how they approach transgender students rather than having narrow-minded ideas.

“There are so many rigid gender ideas of what it means to be a specific gender and if only we can be a little bit more open, encourage people to express their gender however they want, not assume we know someone else’s gender, and being okay with not knowing,” Kirkley said.

Kirkley shared that when she first came to USD in 1995, the LGBTQ+ community had to meet in secret and call a specific number to find the location of the meetings off campus. Back then no one came out and identified with that community, but she stated she has seen progress at USD.

“In the time that I have been here, awareness that we have transgender students has certainly increased,” Kirkley said. “The policies and practices around transgender students has not caught up to the number of transgender identified students who need those policies to be changed.”

One of the policies Kirkley referred to was the limited gender-inclusive restrooms on campus. She stated that the restrooms are not easy to locate and some are locked outside of business hours. This makes the simple concept of going to the restroom a challenge for transgender students to feel comfortable.  An activist group on campus, Pee in Peace, aims to establish gender-inclusive restrooms on campus in all buildings and to bring visibility to transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary students. Currently there are seven gender-inclusive restrooms on campus located in the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall, Founders Hall, Maher Hall, Guadalupe Hall, Pardee Legal Research Center, and the Student Life Pavilion.

However, some students want to see more accommodations such as greater advertising within the university for the transgender community and gender inclusive bathrooms in all buildings of campus.

Junior Brandon Orzolek, co-coordinator of Pee in Peace, spoke about the group’s goals to give a voice to the transgender community on campus that, although small, is still important to recognize.

Besides implementing gender-inclusive restrooms in all buildings on campus, Pee in Peace hopes to incorporate single-stall restrooms on campus with different signs. These are currently labeled as family restrooms and Pee in Peace wants to change the signage so the restrooms are adequately advertised to transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary students. The dialogue between Pee in Peace and the administration is currently ongoing regarding this issue.

Orzolek noticed a need for voices to speak up if change is wanted.

“When I got to USD I felt really (left) out on this campus,” Orzolek said. “I did not feel comfortable. I did not feel that it was a socially welcoming environment. It was extremely challenging to find my place here and for quite some time I was thinking I was going to transfer. I started looking at schools to transfer to. And then I thought if I give up what is going to change? We need voices like mine and voices like the students and faculty who work with me to enact change on this campus. If people like that on campus leave, it will never become a better place.”

Orzolek shared that he carries USD’s mission and vision statement in his wallet to remind him what USD finds as its vision for the future. The vision statement is, “The University of San Diego sets the standard for an engaged, contemporary Catholic university where innovative changemakers confront humanity’s urgent challenges.”

Orzolek believes that USD gives more attention to other communities on campus, while the LGBTQ+ community has not received the same regard.

“It seems like the university doesn’t acknowledge us,” Orzolek. “Other communities have a formal space on campus. It is frustrating and seems narrow-sighted. Bringing back up the idea of a contemporary Catholic college. Where is that? Confronting humanity’s urgent challenges as changemakers. Where is that? Are we not an urgent challenge?”

Smith responded to this idea regarding the lack of recognition for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Students are welcome to contact our office with their feedback,” Smith said. “Our office is happy to work with students to identify and carry out initiatives that foster a more inclusive, supportive community.”

Smith shared she wants more feedback from students if a space on campus is what students want.

“I would have to speak with students who identify in that community and hear from them and what their thoughts are,” Smith said. “I know that we are always open to hear feedback from our students, so if (a space on campus) is something that they were interested in we would certainly be considering that.”

Accommodations for students who identify as transgender exist and administration welcomes anyone in need of assistance to reach out. There are students on this campus who want more accessible help, and the hardships those students who identify as transgender face can be minimized with a continued dialogue.