Talking Stick - May/June 2017 - 38

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

With the assistance of campus subject-matter experts, the department of residential life at Missouri now has more than 20 trained facilitators.

ccording to the Trans Policy
Clearinghouse, there are
now 212 campuses in the
United States that offer
gender-inclusive housing options, and
there are now many themed housing
and living-learning programs dedicated to inclusivity and diversity. The
work is not done, but the changes that
Dilley describes are considerable.

Beginning with the most studentfacing positions, Mizzou developed a
series of training videos in 2011 that
addressed these topics as well as race,
religion, and ability. "The training
videos were impactful because they
featured the student experience, and
that resonated," says Tyler Page, an
area coordinator and member of the
department's training committee.

In this article, Talking Stick writers explored some of the work being
done to integrate LGBTQ students
into campus housing programs. The
following campuses are not intended
to represent an exhaustive list of the
existing efforts, as improvements are
being made on many campuses every
day. Rather, they serve to illustrate the
strides that have been made and to
serve as an inspiration for those still
to come.

Building on the videos'
success, training was extended to
all professional staff, including
maintenance, custodial, and
administrative support staff. In 2013,
Mizzou moved away from the video
format to facilitated training in order
to create a more engaged experience.
With the assistance of campus subjectmatter experts, the department now
has more than 20 trained facilitators.
They deliver training to floor staff each
August and January, while professional
staff receive the training modules as
part of new employee orientation.
"LGBTQ training is pretty standard for
residential life," says Frankie Minor,
the department's director, "But I would
encourage others to expand to the
entirety of staff. That's where we've
really seen the benefits."

Training Ground
by Tonie Miyamoto

When residential life at the University of Missouri in Columbia added
sexual orientation, gender identity, and
gender expression language to their
non-discrimination statement several
years ago, they knew that staff training
would be critical to ensuring that the
words came alive in practice.

TALKING STICK

Minor stresses the power of foundational knowledge, shared language,
and operating from a point of common

understanding to generate results. As
one example, he cites a case where
a transitioning student started the
year using the male restroom before
switching to the female restroom. The
custodial staff recognized the transition and were very supportive. During
the same time, however, a male-identifying student was caught entering
the female bathroom with nefarious
purposes. The custodial staff recognized this behavior as concerning and
appropriately confronted the offender.
Frontline staff often interact the most
with students, and the ability to recognize each of these situations correctly
was critical to customer service and
resident safety. "We are a very red state
in the Midwest. This open conversation about LGBTQ topics may be unfamiliar to some of our new students
and their families," Minor says. "We
seek to normalize this very quickly so
that it is not controversial, but instead
is a natural part of our community."

Open Housing from
the Beginning
by Carolynn Komanski

All-gender housing isn't a new thing
at Macalester College in Saint Paul,
Minnesota. The campus has supported

Talking Stick - May/June 2017

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