N. Eugene Walls, Ph.D. and Kristie Seelman, MSW
Trans on Campus: Study Identifies Barriers to and Supports for Inclusion
Posted: 12/18/2012 11:57 am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/n-eugene-walls-phd/colorado-trans-on-campus-report_b_2318713.htmlBack in 2009, we became part of an informal coalition of transgender and cisgender (i.e., non-transgender) students, faculty and staff from a number of institutions of higher education in Colorado called the Colorado Trans on Campus (CTOC) coalition. The group was originally convened by the Colorado Anti-Violence Program to bring together groups from different campuses to share resources, experience, and knowledge on issues that were impacting transgender and gender non-conforming individuals on campuses in our state. A number of the coalition members were student activists, staff from LGBTQ resource centers and staff from multicultural centers, and it was clear from discussions with the group that trans folks on campuses were experiencing a considerable amount of harassment, daily microaggressions, and barriers on their school campuses. Some of these experiences were with other students, some were in the classrooms, and some were with personnel -- faculty and staff -- employed by the universities. Further, transgender staff and faculty experienced many of the same negative experiences as transgender students.
Little research exists on trans folks' experiences on college campuses, and what does exist has focused primarily on the experiences of students. Additionally, we could find no study that focused on college campuses within the state of Colorado. Under the guidance of the CTOC membership and with funding provided by the University of Denver's Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, we conducted a qualitative study that included intensive semi-structured interviews with 30 transgender or gender non-conforming individuals who were students, staff or faculty on Colorado campuses.
