College plans to add to anti-discrimination policies

Hayley Tsukayama Staff Writer

Pending approval by the the Faculty Policy and Conference Committee (FPCC), Vassar College intends to add the phrase “gender identity or expression” to its employee anti-discrimination policies, extending official protection to transgendered individuals.

Last year, several members of the College Democrats, led by then-president Michael Donnelly ’07, began looking into Vassar’s protection of members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) community. The Democrats discovered that “protections of students were excellent—about as good as you could make them,” according to Donnelly.

“For employees, they were not bad, but not comprehensive enough,” added Donnelly. The students were particularly concerned that transgendered employees were not specifically protected under the College’s current policies.

“No one is insinuating that Vassar would have discriminated against these workers,” said Donnelly. “But we want to solidify and standardize [these policies] on this campus.”

While the definition of “transgender” is often debated, it is generally understood as people exhibiting the appearance and behavioral characteristics of another sex. Sex is considered the physical and genetic traits of a person, while gender is often understood as the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits usually associated with a particular sex.

The group of College Democrats and Queer Coalition members, including Dan Ross ’06 and Kelsey Smith ’07, tried to change the policy through several channels last year.
“We talked to professors, and we also e-mailed the FPCC,” said Donnelly.

Many faculty members with whom Donnelly and others spoke were surprised that explicit protection of the transgendered community was not in the College’s policies. The issue quickly made it to the FPCC, but due to the advice of the College’s lawyers, it was not officially approved.
“The lawyers were never against it,” said current College Democrats President Morgan Warners ’08. According to Warners the lawyers were concerned because there is no equivalent langucge in New York or federal law that includes the phrase “gender identity or expression.” The discrepancy could therefore have resulted in lawsuits against the College.

After the proposal was rejected by the FPCC, the students decided to take their concerns directly to College President Fran Fergusson in spring 2005.

“To say [Fergusson] was enthusiastic would be an understatement,” said Donnelly. “She basically looked at us and said, ‘Before I go, this will be in,’” referring to her scheduled retirement in 2006.

On Feb. 10, Warners received an e-mail from Fergusson saying that many people in the administration supported the idea of adding to the anti-discrimination policy. Donnelly said that a convincing reason was that though Vassar did not have the explicit protections, most Fortune 500 companies have the phrase “gender identity or expression” or similar language explicitly in their policies.

HSBC Bank, of which Fergusson is a board member, also has this phrase in its discrimination policies.
When asked about the change, Fergusson replied via e-mail, “I noticed a year ago that HSBC Bank includes in its very strong diversity statement ‘gender identity or expression.’ It seemed evident to me that Vassar College should do no less than a major international bank!”

The College Democrats plan to continue to explore the standardization of the College’s policies on discrimination. The group would like to see sex and gender listed separately in the College’s discrimination policies.

Warners, also chair of the Committee on GLBTQ Affairs, said that he sees the addition to the anti-discrimination policy as “part of a broader effort to help GLBTQ affairs, not just at Vassar, but on a national level.” The organization has participated in National Coming Out Day, the Dignity for All Students Lobby Day, and is currently involved in a movement to include gender-neutral bathrooms in all College buildings.