Recognizing a potential gap in current peer advisory programs, students and staff are discussing the establishment of a new group that would focus on gender and sexuality. At a workshop late last month, around 20 students gathered to discuss the possibility and the needs the program would address.
The three-hour workshop, sponsored by the Center for Gender and Student Engagement and the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, focused on the nuances of gender and sexual diversity in society. Attendees discussed heterosexuality and identity, as well as perceptions and stereotypes of LGBTQ students. Students also talked about deconstructing societal views of LGBTQ individuals, the origins of those views and how they manifest themselves at Dartmouth.
The workshop also outlined the process of recognizing and reporting incidences of intolerance, Joseph Miller ’14 said.
The initiative was inspired by the desire to provide a forum for students who are interested in understanding gender and sexual diversity, OPAL assistant dean and LGBTQ advisor Reese Kelly said. The goal is to offer students the knowledge and tools necessary to become well-informed peer advisors or serve as a resource for other students on campus, he said.
“We want to empower students and give them foundational perspectives about gender and sexual diversity so that they can pursue it more elsewhere,” Kelly said.
OPAL and CGSE organized the workshop as a first step in shaping the program around students’ needs and interests. Kelly has worked with workshop attendees to create a student committee that will spearhead the program, he said.
Feedback from students will inform how CGSE and OPAL pursue this project, Kelly said. The initial idea was to create a gender and sexual diversity peer advising program, but the project may instead be integrated into existing peer advising programs, he said.
“I’m really leaving it up to the students who participated in the training,” Kelly said. “This is really something that is for students, and having a student committee to figure out how they want to use this information is what is going to make it sustainable and interesting.”
Miller, who attended the pilot workshop, said he would be excited to see the project come to fruition.
Though the program would focus on gender, identity expression and sexual identity, it could serve as a resource for all students, he said.
In general, Miller said, peer advising programs help promote healthy relationships between students. The new program would be a particularly helpful support system for LGBTQ students, he said.
“Whenever you have an underrepresented or minority group, it is always important to provide resources that provide support and create community,” Miller said.
Holli Weed ’14, a Mentor Against Violence, Sexual Abuse Peer Advisor and Sexpert, said she believes gender and sexual identity are important topics on campus.
“Due to the complexity of the issue, for a peer advisor to be helpful and effective in this topic, I believe a separate peer advising program would be in the students’ best interests,” Weed said.
Campus outreach regarding LGBTQ and gender awareness was bolstered last year with a student-led initiative focusing on one-on-one peer mentoring and an outreach program for Greek organizations. Although there have been previous attempts to create a training program on gender and sexual diversity issues, initiatives have faltered due to students’ different D-Plans, Kelly said.
Kelly said that after collecting feedback on the pilot workshop, CGSE and OPAL hope to use the rest of the academic year to continue developing the initiative. The organizations plan to host a second workshop in the spring.
CGSE assistant director Michelle Hector was not available for comment by press time.
