Kent State’s Highest Campus Pride Rating Yet

This year Kent State was awarded one of Campus Pride’s highest rankings, a 4.5 out of 5, on its Campus Pride Index.

Campus Pride is a national nonprofit organization run for and by students who are working to create a safer college environment for LGBTQ students. This group grades colleges and universities on several criteria such as LGBTQ Campus Safety, Academic Life, Policy Inclusion and Counseling and Health.

When compared to seven other top colleges of similar size, Kent State ranked high.

 

Kent State has had an active LGBTQ community for decades and resources offered to those community members has evolved since beginning in the early 1970s.

This timeline showcases a few of Kent State’s biggest steps forward for its LGBTQ students, faculty and staff.

The 4.5, which is an improvement from the 3.5 report card given by Campus Pride in 2015, is attributed to many new programs and initiatives started at Kent State in the past few years.

The Assistant Director of the LGBTQ Student Center at Kent State, Katie Mattise, has seen many strides

on campus in the past three years of working there, including the preferred name policy for students.

This policy, which was a key factor for Kent State’s campus rating this year, allows students who go by different names than what is legally on their birth certificates to change the name that appears on their school documents like emails or class rosters. The center is currently trying to go even further with this policy.

“Right now, one of the things that will maybe improve our score from 4.5 to a 5 in the future is getting that preferred policy for faculty and staff, not just for students,” Mattise said. “Right now, if you’re staff or faculty, your legal name is what shows up.”

Working with a group called Spectrum, an LGBTQ faculty and staff group, with faculty who are part of Committee Q, the faculty group for LGBTQ folks, and with people who are in the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the LGBTQ Student Center is hoping to make this possible.

Another major policy improvement that happened last year was trans-inclusive healthcare coverage for faculty and staff.

“Trans faculty and staff had to find workarounds in order to get insurance to cover necessary medical intervention and some insurers or doctors were able to find workarounds and in other times they weren’t,” Mattise said. “They were really denied. So, having it kind of more explicitly in the policy and benefits is definitely a huge improvement.”

Within the report card, Support & Institutional Commitment received a score of five. This score was possible through programs and events offered to students such as Film Friday, Bored? Games and Round Table Discussions.

Bella Bowman, an intern for the LGBTQ Student Center, has attended and even lead Round Table Discussion groups.

“Round Table Discussions are usually based around a certain theme for a month,” Bowman said. “Like during Women’s History Month, we focus on women. For Black History Month, we do it on LGBTQ like in the black community. Just educating people on things that they don’t know yet whether that’s in the community or in another community.”

Another unique program the Center offers is the Quest Mentorship program. This program, which is one of a kind, connects Kent State students to graduates of KSU and professionals within the LGBTQ community.

“The main component is that one-on-one relationship,” Mattise said. “We’ve had some really awesome relationships kind of develop out of this and people stay in contact even after they graduate from here. We’ve had folks who have been able to like, ‘Oh, I work at a school. You are a teacher. You want to be a teacher, come work for me for the summer.’”

These mentors and students also meet up once a month as a group in another program funded by Canapi, Community AIDS Network/Akron Pride Initiative, that offers career development in areas like interviewing and resume building.

“We’ve done workshops around how to navigate being LGBTQ while job searching,” Mattise said. “How do you figure out if your company is a safe company, in 28 states you can get fired for being LGBTQ. So, taking that into account, figuring out, ‘Am I even going to be out in my job?’ because there’s a very real risk.”

The LGBTQ Student Center also has an emergency fund available for students in need. It can be used for books, academic supplies, household items, housing or food. The fund is for Kent campus students as well as regional campus students

“As long as we have the funds, we’re able to transfer up to $500 into their Bursar’s account,” Mattise said. “It’s been a really great way to help students stay and actually graduate.

Mattise said in the 2016-2017 school year, they had 27 students utilize the fund.

LGBTQ Housing & Residence Life also received a score of five. One of the factors that contributed to this is accessible gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. The LGBTQ Student Center offers a Kent Campus Universal Restrooms map for students and staff.

Every spring, the LGBTQ community honors its students with a special ceremony called Lavender Graduation.

“The Lavender Graduation is pretty important,” Mattise said. “Not only is it fun but it’s a great way to recognize the people who have accomplished graduating. But it’s a good way to inspire people who haven’t graduated yet to continue because folks with marginalized image identities in general tend to have smaller graduation rates than folks with a lot of dominate identities. So, to have people who can be role models and to see them be successful is inspiring.”

Nico Mostella, whose preferred name is Nico Rushh, President of PRIDE! Kent and Threads also thinks Lavender Graduation serves as a motivator for current students.

“For the people who don’t cross the stage but are in the audience, the people crossing serve as representation that you can make it and finish,” he said. 

 

Story by: Alex Tinline and Ashton Vogelhuber