LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

1. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education Diversity, Learning, and Student Success, March 28, 2014 Rebecca Dolinsky & Heather McCambly, AAC&U

2. Guiding Questions • How do LGBTQ issues become visible on campus? • How are they handled? How could they be? • How does the way we discuss or address these issues affect the educational environment or outcomes for students? • How do questions of sexuality and gender identity affect our practice in terms of student success? • How do contingent faculty come into the picture?

3. How do LGBTQ issues become visible on campus? As we read through these institutionally-based incidents, think about the rhetoric that is typically used to “explain away” (Frankenberg, 1993) these types of occurrences: • Grace University (private, religious institution) • Edgecombe Community College (public, two-year institution) • University of Richmond (private, nonsectarian, liberal arts institution) How do these incidents contribute to campus climate? LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

4. How do LGBTQ issues become visible on campus? • Rhetoric: free speech/freedom of expression • What about threat or harm to individuals? • What about “level of respect”? (Rankin – “campus climate”) • We need discourses on civility and civic engagement, including examples that counter the negative headlines and feature positive communications across difference • Negative headlines promote dialogue about social change • Positive headlines underscore the spirit of a liberally educated citizenry • What language do we currently use? What other language can we use? • How does this play out in different institutional sectors? LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

5. Technology’s impact on civility and civic engagement practices. • Fostering student success and well-being: • Twitter: #StandWithSam created to support the University of Missouri’s Michael Sam, who came out last month. • Fostering incivility: • http://www.nohomophobes.com tracks homophobic language on Twitter • Last week: 181,125 tweets incl. “faggot”; 51,982 tweets incl. “so gay” • Twitter appeals to18-29 demographic (Pew) LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

6. How does the way we discuss or address these issues affect the educational environment or outcomes for students? Technology’s impact on civility and civic engagement practices. • Flipped classrooms & lecture capture create space for service-learning and community-based research (Butin2014) & in-class discussions about diversity and difference (high-impact practices), where demonstrated practices of civility can take place. • Faculty establish rules of civil discourse in online discussion boards, and use Twitter hashtags to model civil engagement. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

7. How do contingent faculty come into the picture? • Extending democratic principles to contingent faculty: connect the contingent faculty experience to the underserved student experience. • Flipped classrooms and lecture capture—how can we provide contingent faculty members with opportunities to engage with digital teaching practices? • Which courses at your institutions provide students the opportunity to engage in issues related to gender and sexuality? How many of those courses are taught by contingent faculty? Are those faculty members receiving the support they need to foster the success of underserved students in their courses? • Students don’t tend to differentiate between TTF and NTTF. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

8. How do questions of sexuality and gender identity affect our practice in terms of student success?

9. How do questions of sexuality and gender identity affect our practice in terms of student success? At your tables, discuss the following points and use the note cards to record 1-2 responses to the questions below: • Pink card: What matters to LGBTQ student success on your campus? Are LGBTQ-relevant issues visible? Are courses offered? If so, who teaches those courses? • White card: Have you and/or your colleagues experienced any challenges on your campus related to LGBTQ student success? Is there any relationship to institutional type? LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

10. What do we already know students need? Familiar Student Success Examples Tinto: Social integration improves retention. Various student groups may require identity-specific attention. Swail: Strategic collaboration to integrate the student experience across the institution and in the classroom. Wyckoff and Habley: Interpersonal interactions on campus influence intent to persist. Rendon: Affirmation of student identity/role as creators of knowledge/community membership influences student success. Astin: Quality of student involvement and investment in a campus predicts academic performance and persistence. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

11. To succeed, all students need: Meaningful academic and social engagement and affirmation The question is not what else do LGBTQ students need, but what is unique about supporting their engagement with campus, faculty, staff, peers, and curriculum? LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

12. So… What is unique about supporting LGBTQ student engagement with campus, faculty, staff, peers, and curriculum? We can approach this using identity development theory. Reminder: LGBTQ students have intersectional identities. They come from all races, ethnicities, religions, political parties, social classes. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

13. Thinking through experiences (not stages) involved in sexual (and other) identity development. I am actively processing unexplored feelings or implications of my ethnicity/sexuality/spirituality; exploring racial or sexual stereotypes and implications of my identity on my future, my goals, or relationships. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

14. I am moving internally and externally between identities; immersing myself in a minority culture; seeking or needing community and support from peers or mentors with similar experiences. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

15. I am starting or trying to come to terms with my altered connection to others and systems based on my personal identity; committed to intellectual exploration, activism, expressing myself and devoting time to social causes of importance to my identity. LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

16. I am finding balance and a more fluid existence to navigate between majority and minority communities; integrating pieces of my identity (spirituality, sexuality, race, class). LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

17. Interestingly, the practical conclusions we reach align with some of campuspride.org’s factors of “LGBT-Friendly” campuses… • LGBT studies program; LGBT specific course offerings; gender-neutral/single occupancy restrooms; new faculty/staff training on issues relation to sexuality and gender • Student organizations for LGBT & Ally students; resource center for LGBT students; regularly planned educational events on issues related to sexuality and gender • Non-discrimination statements inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression; health care coverage to employees’ same-sex partners • Campus safety policies for LGBT members of the campus community; housing available for LGBT students • LGBT mentoring program; LGBT and Ally student scholarships LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education

18. Broaden the notion of what it means to be underserved in higher education. Some entry points: • Apply studies, such as Bettina Huber’s (2010) analysis of the relationship between the success of traditionally underserved students and their engagement with high-impact practices, to LGBTQ students. • Describe traditionally underserved students in intersectional terms, and include LGBTQ status among those terms. And think about how we can best serve all students across their multiple identity markers. • Other entry points? LGBTQ Student Success in Higher Education