Transcripts

SPEAKER: University of Minnesota officials are being asked by a faculty committee to establish a gay and lesbian studies program. The Select Committee for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns, which was appointed two years ago by President Nils Hasselmo, says it's part of an effort to curb discrimination against gays and lesbians at the university. The committee's chairperson is Dr. Marjorie Cowmeadow. She is associate dean at the General College at the university, and she joins me this morning to talk about the proposal. Good morning, Dr. Cowmeadow.

MARJORIE COWMEADOW (ON PHONE): Good morning.

SPEAKER: There are, as I understand it, five recommendations the committee has presented to the president. Can you outline those for us?

MARJORIE COWMEADOW (ON PHONE): Sure. And I do want to mention that this is a joint report. This is an interim report for the Select Committee, but we joined forces this fall with the Gay and Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Emergency Response Team. And so this is a recommendation coming from two committees.

That committee was put together to respond to some incidents that had occurred at the Association Office for Gay, Lesbian, Bi Students at the University. And these two committees came up with five recommended actions that we think the university needs to implement to address discrimination against gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals at the university. One is to establish an office for gay, lesbian, bisexual concerns. Two would be to provide a full benefit package for gay and lesbian families at the university.

Three is to establish a gay and lesbian studies program. And four is to develop a training program on gay, lesbian, bisexual concerns to educate the university community. And five would be to update all printed publication and materials so in fact, the materials are reflective of a diverse sexual orientation on campus. So it would be those five.

SPEAKER: Now, one of the recommendations you mentioned, an office of gay, lesbian and bisexual concerns, can you talk about what that office will do specifically? Examples of what students might need?

MARJORIE COWMEADOW (ON PHONE): Well, at this stage, the recommendations aren't real prescriptive. So we're drawing upon what's going on nationally. And we're suggesting that the purpose of the office would be to provide educational programming, training, referrals, advocacy, and generally serve as a resource for the whole entire university community around gay, lesbian, bi issues.

We know that within the big ten, University of Michigan has an office and has had one since 1971. Ohio State University recently created an office. And I think nationally there's probably over 12 to 15. We're in the process of trying to get more national data. So that when we present next week to the committees, we can say how University of Minnesota proposal fits within the context of what people are doing nationally.

SPEAKER: Can you also talk about the gay-lesbian studies program? Maybe describe what committee members envision.

MARJORIE COWMEADOW (ON PHONE): Sure. I think one of the ways to talk about this is I talked about it on Almanac last night is to talk about it from the curriculum perspective that we're really interested in fostering courses that deal specifically with gay and lesbian issues. But we also want to make sure that existing coursework issues and concerns for gay and lesbians are also included, as well as taking a look at the contributions that gays and lesbians have made throughout history.

So it's both looking at an integration of gay, lesbian, bi issues into existing curriculum and really developing new courses in this area. This is an emerging field of academic scholarship. Just recently, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at University Center-- excuse me, at City University of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation just gave them a $250,000 grant, in fact, to foster and develop academic scholarship in the area of gay and lesbian studies.

So Minnesota would not be the first program in this area. The one at New York has been around since 1991. And we're in the process of trying to find out other kinds of universities within the United States who are also moving in this direction. So this is an emerging field and we want to take advantage of existing courses that are already being offered at the university. So I think there's a real effort now to coordinate, to promote and to foster academic scholarship in this area and to provide this an opportunity for faculty, but also for students at the University to learn to educate themselves more in this field.

SPEAKER: Talking with Dr. Marjorie Cowmeadow, associate dean at the General College at the University of Minnesota and chairwoman of the Select Committee for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns. Dr. Cowmeadow, why is this needed? How serious is the discrimination problem?

MARJORIE COWMEADOW (ON PHONE): Well, in our report, one of the things that we've used in our report is personal testimony. We solicited written testimony. We held 10 focused structured group meetings. We also had an open mic.

And I think what we found was, both in the classroom, outside the classroom, colleagues working together, that there is both subtle and very blatant and open discrimination against gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals at the University of Minnesota. And it really is pervasive. It tells us that we really need to take action to combat this.

People have fears. People are afraid of physical attack. Daily people are harassed.

And really, that's not the climate that the university wants to provide people to come to study, and to learn and to grow. So I think we really welcome the president's request to do an interim report so in fact, we can advise him and also advise the central administrators and the faculty governance committees about actions that really need to be taken to change the environment. So, in fact, all of us can feel welcome there and thrive.

SPEAKER: Now, of course, President Hasselmo supports the concept, yet he says financial problems may get in the way. How much do you project this would cost? Have you put a dollar figure on it?

MARJORIE COWMEADOW (ON PHONE): No, we don't. I think when you talk about cost, it's hard to project costs without talking about size, location, the configuration. If you look at different models-- let's just take the office, if you look at different models around the country, the cost is going to vary depending upon the number of personnel that you have there.

It's going to vary depending upon whether it's a standalone office or whether it's a function out of a current existing office. And I think the thing that we're looking at is we need to put a Minnesota spin on this. We need to make sure that this fits and works for us.

And I think-- I say that also to say that whereas these two committees are particularly Twin Cities centric, as we take a look at the recommendations, these recommendations are really recommendations that apply system wide. We're not just talking about implementation at the Twin Cities campus. We have gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals at the other campuses, at Morris, at Crookston, at UMD. And how that gets articulated at the different campuses may vary.

So we need to make sure that it works for us. And I think that's real key. But we are saying that these are five things that need to be discussed on all the campuses and need to be addressed if in fact we're serious about doing something about discrimination.

So I think cost is not where we should begin. I think where we need to begin is, what's the mission, what's the goal, what's the purpose? The other feature about cost is we need to also realize in terms of full-benefit package for gay and lesbian families. This is now being provided for married couples at the university.

I personally have been at the university for 25 years and in a partnership for 14, and I don't understand why I am excluded from including my partner in coverage. It makes no sense. If this is an employee benefit, it's a matter of equity and fairness. And since the university does happen to have a non-discrimination policy where in fact sexual orientation is included, then one could look at that and say the university is out of compliance with its own policy.