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In this month’s interview, Andrew Hibel spoke to Tegra Myanna, assistant director of the Lealtad-Suzuki Center at Macalester College and Travis Tucker, Jr., assistant director for leadership and LGBTQIA involvement for Campus Life at Washington University in St. Louis. They discuss their experiences working with LGBTQIA students, how to foster inclusivity and community on campus, and how to stay motivated in their roles.
Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: Tegra and Travis, please each explain a little about your professional backgrounds, what led you to your current positions, and what your current role is at Macalester College or Washington University in St. Louis, respectively.
Tegra Myanna, assistant director of the Lealtad-Suzuki Center, Macalester College: I serve as the assistant director of the Lealtad-Suzuki Center in the Department of Multicultural Life where I oversee LGBTQ+ initiatives, Cultural House, All Gender Living communities, and Identity Collectives. Identity Collectives provide people with opportunities for connection and discussion within and across social identity. Prior to working at Macalester, I served as the assistant director of the Gender & Sexuality Center at Carleton College where we focused on LGBTQIA+ initiatives, healthy relationships, sexual violence prevention, and safer sex education. I was interested in working at Macalester because of the community’s values of multiculturalism and internationalism and I was excited to see how these core values would be woven into the work we do.
Travis Tucker, Jr., assistant director for leadership and LGBTQIA involvement for Campus Life, Washington University in St. Louis: I never expected to hold on to the role that I currently have at WashU. Before working in diversity affairs/LGBTQIA involvement, I worked in Residence Life/Housing as a hall director at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in Carbondale, Illinois. I assumed that I would continue to work in housing for most of my time in higher education. The turning point came when I was approached to advise the LGBTQIA student organization on our campus. As I began working with Queer students in a 1:1 capacity, I recognized that it was something I loved. Soon, I was asked to become the coordinator of the LGBTQ Resource Center at SIU and was overjoyed to have an opportunity to create LGBTQIA+ trainings, advise Queer student organizations, and provide counseling to Queer students. At WashU I do a lot of the same as well as helping to support inclusive policy creation around campus. While many policies are created with the best of intentions, some do not fully represent the evolving needs of LGBTQIA students today. Through conversation with students, staff, and faculty we move forward in building policy that represents the needs of all of our students.
Hibel: Your institutions are each listed by Campus Pride as top colleges/universities for LGBTQ students defined by a survey of eight factors varying from recruiting and retention, support, inclusion policies, campus safety, and others. What are some areas in which you think your institution succeeds in order to be highlighted in this list?
Myanna: I believe that the strength of a small, liberal arts campus is its ability to foster relationships and shift with the needs of each new cohort of people who join our community. Macalester has done an excellent job of incorporating LGBTQIA+ issues to our framework of multiculturalism and you see this in the opportunities available to students and in the services provided to meet the needs of our LGBTQIA+ community. Macalester offers students a variety of spaces to question, affirm, or shift the understanding and expression that they have of their identity.
In addition to peer-to-peer opportunities to connection we also offer a way for students to connect to alumni (Queer Professionals Network) and faculty/staff (Out and Proud Community) for additional support and mentoring on navigating LGBTQIA+ identity in a variety of settings. I believe that Macalester has been able to address the needs of LGBTQIA+ students by allowing them to change their gender marker, providing counseling and medical staff who are knowledgeable about LGBTQIA+ care, incorporating introductions with pronouns across the campus-community, and having a recognized name policy.
Finally, I believe that our connections to St. Paul and the Twin Cities for additional LGBTQIA+ support, resources, and community is invaluable. The Twin Cities have thriving indigenous and people of color communities that are represented in the LGBTQIA+ community, community organizations that advocate for the best in LGBTQIA+ care, and is located within a state recognizes the need for equity around LGBTQIA+ identity.
Tucker: We as an institution are particularly strong in LGBTQ Student Life, Policy Inclusion, and providing LGBTQ Support & Institutional Commitment.
Hibel: Now, more specifically, what are some best practices, programs, or policies that your institution employs to be a just and inclusive college or university in regards to students? What about best practices to ensure LGBTQIA staff, faculty, and administration feel empowered and supported on campus?
Myanna: If you are looking for suggestions of best practices for LGBTQIA+ services and programs, I would suggest that higher education professionals turn to the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. They have crafted two best practices guides, one for Supporting Trans Students and another for Recommendations for Supporting Trans and Queer Students of Color, which are both available on their website.
In addition to implementing many of the best practices listed in the resources guides, Macalester employs two practices that I believe serve in our attempt to be a just and inclusive college. First, we work towards doing multicultural work that fully integrates student identities around gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, ability, etc. into the programming that comes out of the Department of Multicultural Life. We provide places for community building, discussion, and education that targets oppression and bias at a variety of intersections.
Another practice employed at Macalester is that this work is done across the campus and not seen as solely the responsibility of folks who work in identity specific offices. My office has close connections with Residential Life, Registrar, Alumni Relations, Student Activities, and a variety of other departments were they increase their capacity to serve students who hold marginalized identities by staying knowledgeable and informed about the changing needs of our campus community. I believe that the efforts of our colleagues from different offices allow our students to make connections on campus and find community that center all their interests/passions.
Similar to how we work with supporting our students it is important that faculty/staff/admin have the ability to change gender markers, establish the use of a recognized name, and that their pronouns be respected. Institutional policies should support LGBTQIA+ identity, families, and provide resources that meet the specific needs of LGBTQIA+ people. Having insurance options that cover gender affirmation surgery, hormones, or reproductive assistance are valuable to LGBTQIA+ people. At orientation, institutions can include contact information to on-campus resources for people who hold marginalized identities or offer the names of other faculty/staff who are willing to serve as a resource or mentor to new professionals.
Tucker: I believe one of the biggest ways that we promote this is the encouragement of participating in trainings around LGBTQ issues across campus. It is very common to see Faculty and Staff SafeZones signs adorned across office doors. Encouraging faculty and staff to attend these training during the work day has done a lot of good in normalizing the importance of educating yourself around these issues. We also have policies — particularly our partner-friendly healthcare package and newly created adoption policy — that help show our faculty and staff members that this is a place that supports their whole selves. On a micro level, I believe that some of our departments and divisions “do the work” by not making assumptions of people’s identities and lived experiences. In some departments and divisions, it is common for people to not only share their pronouns during every introduction but also include them in their e-mail signatures.
Hibel: Tegra, Macalester has programs such as Lavender Reception, Lavender Graduation, and Tea Time supported by the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC). Please explain the importance of these types of programs.
Myanna: The Gender & Sexuality Resource Center is our student-initiated space for conversation, community, and action around issues of gender and sexuality. We have a number of organizations and identity collectives that utilize this space both for programming but also information gathering. Tea time is a weekly opportunity for community building and discussion around current events, campus issues, or to host inter-identity dialogues about our LGBTQIA+ identity at the intersection of another minoritized identity.
Lavender Reception and Lavender Graduation are two of many ways that we try to recognize and support the contributions of our LGBTQIA+ community to the fabric of Macalester culture. Lavender Reception is our large welcoming event where students, faculty, and staff are invited to connect with LGBTQIA+ colleagues and allies. We provide new Mac community members an opportunity to connect with additional campus resources (student organizations, faculty, staff, identity collectives, counseling staff, medical staff) so they are aware of what our LGBTQIA+ community looks like at Mac and who are the community members who are going to be there to support you in your transition through the college.
These programs are important because they allow students an opportunity to connect with the community that exists at Macalester for folks who have a gender identity or sexual orientation that experiences marginalization. These events also provide people with an opportunity to make further connections within the LGBTQIA+ community by providing a program where all subgroups are present. Finally, I believe it also provides people with a reunion to LGBTQIA+ community if their passions or interests at Macalester connect them to other areas on campus.
Hibel: Travis, Washington University in St. Louis has many student led groups such as “SafeZones” and “People Like Us.” Please tell us the importance of student led groups as these.
Tucker: Making sure that our student groups represent the entire Queer experience is incredibly important to us at WashU. SafeZones is an organization that is a peer-led training group that helps educate the undergraduate community around LGBTQ issues. All new trainers are required to complete a “train the trainer” program that engages them with the SafeZones curriculum and after completion of the program, are required to complete a number of trainings over the course of the academic year. SafeZones has trained countless student organizations, residence hall floors, athletic teams, and students just looking to learn more. To have a peer-led LGBTQ education group provides an opportunity to create unique learning experiences that meet students where they are. People Like Us (PLUS) is an organization that was founded to meet the needs of queer students of color on our campus. The needs of queer students of color are unique; the intersections of race and gender create a unique and sometimes difficult experience for students. This group provides a space to let our students know that you are not alone and that there are people that understand what you are going through.
Hibel: What are possible barriers to or successful catalysts for inclusivity for LGBTQIA persons that campus leadership needs to be aware of? How can leadership address the barriers or successfully take advantage of the catalysts?
Myanna: I think an important barrier is that the LGBTQIA+ community encompasses folks who hold a number of identities and enter our institutions with a variety of needs. This provides us with opportunities for dialogue and to challenge our practice to eliminate assumptions and move beyond binary ways of thinking. It creates space for collaboration between offices, eliminates silos, and allows us to think about the whole student. It is essential that we have students connected to our work and institutional change because they often have the best grasp of what the needs of the community are and what barriers people are encountering as they navigate our campuses. It also allows us to make policy or new practice that is representative of the needs of a diverse campus body. For example, we have to make sure that by creating all gender spaces that we aren’t ignoring the needs of people who need single gender options.
Tucker: One of the bigger barriers that I have encountered in doing this work is when LGBTQ students do not see themselves within the community. For example, if they are trans-identifying, the student groups on campus are very “LGB” focused. If they are a person of color, they attend a group meeting and felt that the experiences were very white-specific and were not able to make connections. How are you making your community intersectional and representative of all experiences? Are you engaging with students that are struggling to make community and asking how to make it better? Success in this is bringing students on as partners and empowering them to create a community that they would like to see and be a part of.
Hibel: It is imaginable that at times working to address these topics and advocating for change can press the limits of one’s emotional bandwidth. What suggestions do you have for campus professionals to stay motivated, keep momentum, and not experience burn out?
Myanna: I’ve found it important to find my allies on campus who are also equally invested in doing this work. I think students and their continually evolving ways of seeing gender and sexuality are a motivator for me because it means that I’m always learning and reflecting on my own assumptions and thoughts around these issues. Something that I’ve had with each of my supervisors has been open and honest communication and the ability to have conversations when I’m struggling with barriers to change or my own capacity to continue the fight. These supervisors have been helpful in identifying different ways to approach a situation, space for reflection to understand my and the barriers’ motivations, and finally to also assist in advocating for change if they have different relationships or positional power that they can leverage.
Tucker: I deal with this regularly. Navigating identity work that is attached to your own identity can be emotionally taxing. I think all professionals need to recognize their own “line in the sand” and honor whatever that line is for them. For me, it has been maintaining a balance between my work on college campuses versus what I do for volunteering and engagement experiences outside of work. I tend to work with volunteer organizations that are supportive of LGBTQ issues, but that is not the main cause of the group. It allows me to engage with some of my other passions and to recharge.
Hibel: If you were providing advice to a higher education professional looking to start a career in academia working with LGBTQIA students and community, what two pieces of advice would you give them in order for them to be prepared to succeed on campus?
Myanna: Continually challenge who you imagine when you think of an LGBTQIA+ person or the LGBTQIA+ community. Make sure that you are critically engaging with and personally reflecting on your own relationship with communities of color, communities with disabilities, communities of faith, and other identities that hold saliency within LGBTQIA+ spaces.
Working with students is not a one directional relationship. I think when entering the field of higher education it is often framed in ways that don’t allow us to learn, grow, or be in community with students. My success in this work comes from being in community with students, making sure they are part of the conversation, and allowing them to take the lead when advocating for change.
Tucker: Take the time to build meaningful and impactful relationships with LGBTQ students on your campus. There are many Queer students that are looking for support and a non-judgmental ear; being that person for a student is helping to change their time on campus. It also will provide you an opportunity to really understand the needs of LGBTQIA students and how to best support them. There are so very few administrators that “get” LGBTQIA students on a campus; you will find that if you build successful relationships, you quickly become a go-to person.
Second, for folks that are LGBTQIA identifying and are thinking about entering this work; what tools will you use to balance doing identity work that is based on some of your own lived experiences? Where are your “lines in the sand”? Knowing these things about yourself before you enter the work will be crucial as things on your campus happen.
Hibel: For either new or existing staff on campus, what are the essential resources that every higher education professional should be aware of?
Myanna: In regards to serving the needs of our students, I believe every staff member should be aware of the multicultural center, counseling and medical services, residential life, Title IX prevention and response folks, dean of students office, registrar, and have go-to faculty for academic resources. Keep an eye out on what trainings/dialogues are happening on campus and find ways to connect with the student body. I’ve found it really helpful to read both the school newspaper and also student generated publications.
Tucker: There is so little research on trans students in higher education even though this is a growing population on college campuses across the country. Z. Nicolazzo’s book, “Trans* in College: Transgender Students’ Strategies for Navigating Campus Life and the Institutional Politics of Inclusion,” is a great read and is a huge step forward for professionals understanding this important population.
Hibel: What keeps each of you engaged in working in higher education to support students and advocate for the liberation of LGBTQIA people?
Myanna: For me an important thing that I gain from this work is opportunities to continue to learn and challenge my own assumptions around equity and liberation. I also think the work that we do on college campuses has the possibility for infinite change as our graduates move into their post-undergrad communities. Finally, the relationships I have and the people I get to work with really help me to stay engaged and motivated to do this work.
Tucker: I think each of us that works with Queer populations on college campuses will tell you that it truly is an honor to be invited into the spaces that our students make community in. These are populations that have sometimes rejected and suffered physical and/or verbal abuse for literally existing. When they choose to share something with you, invite you into a space, and go so far to make community with you it is a huge honor. Respecting and supporting those students’ voices and pushing them to become the best versions of themselves gets me excited to go to work every day.