This past weekend, a student left Quinnipiac University because they were being bullied over their sexual orientation. President Judy Olian addressed the situation through email, but the responses from students and administration were mixed.
A large complaint about the handling of this situation has to do with the fact that the student had been complaining about their situation for the past couple of weeks, yet nothing was done.
“There definitely should’ve been more done for the student than there was,” said Athena Cuttle, a senior psychology major and the president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at Quinnipiac. “(The student) had gone to their RA and residential life and there was only so much res-life could do, and when they tried going to other people it just wasn’t getting as much traction as it needed.”
Title IX of the federal Education Amendment of 1972 and subsequent legal guidance from the U.S. Office for Civil Rights require schools that receive federal funding to enforce anti-bullying policies written to protect LGBT students from anti-gay harassment.
Title IX states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Jamien Jean-Baptiste, a senior behavioral neuroscience major and vice president for Public Relations in Quinnipiac Student Government, explained that while he feels the administration’s response could’ve been stronger, the responsibility of the students is still there.
“It’s a very big balance of both,” Jean-Baptiste said. “The bullying came from a student, and it was able to suffice and exist for so long because administration and students didn’t do enough. So I think there needs to be a greater education amongst the students, but there also needs to be a level of consequences that the faculty and staff are willing to push.”
The incident also has some staff questioning the integrity and focus of Residential Life at Quinnipiac.
“There are people who’ve made awful choices and are bullying, but you also have people who are responsible for reacting and responding to complaints,” said Kenneth Cormier, an associate English professor at Quinnipiac. “What happened there? Did something break down there? Those people, who they report to, did they not respond to the complaints because somebody else doesn’t see those as a priority? So, to what extent is it just an isolated incident, and to what extent is there a larger culture that’s helping to perpetuate it. I’m not saying there is, but you have to look closely when something like this happens.”
At the same time, there are those who feel that when you take a look at the history of Quinnipiac as a whole, you get a bit of a different perspective.
“I have to say that I think President Olian and the administration is doing more than has been done in the past,” said William Jellison, a psychology professor at Quinnipiac. “I think that oftentimes in dealing with these issues, they need to be handled in a sensitive way. So I think sometimes the administration may pause and may not respond as quickly as some people would like because they need to think about their response.”
Jellison, who is also the faculty advisor for the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at Quinnipiac, mentioned a starting point for President Olian and staff.
“I think that addressing the call to action that was put out by Athena Cuttle and other student leaders and GSA is a good place to start,” Jellison said. “But I think there’s a difference between ‘can they do more?’ and ‘are they attempting to bring about change?’ So I think about it as, ‘there’s an administration that’s attempting to bring about change,’ as opposed to avoiding damage, which has been my experience previously.”
Many members of administration want students and members of the community to understand that while these changes may come slowly, they are consistent throughout recent years.
“The campus has changed since I’ve been here,” said Donald Sawyer, the vice president of Equity and Inclusion at Quinnipiac. “It’s not the same campus that it was when I came here eight years ago and I know that for a fact. With the programming that’s happening, the conversations that are happening, the announcements and statements that get sent out, even though people may critique those. These things weren’t done before. But I want us to get to a space where we’re not just against everything. We have to show what we are for, and when we show what we are for, the only way we bring about that change is through collaborative efforts. That’s the only way we shift the culture of the institution.”
Sawyer stated that the requests and statements made by the Gender and Sexuality Alliance will be considered and taken seriously.
“A number of things that were requested are not things that are not necessarily difficult to do.” Sawyer said. “They would take time, as far as gender inclusive housing and learning communities, they have to be developed. But it’s not anything that’s too difficult to make happen, it’s been done at other institutions.”
Not only does Sawyer want students to know that they are being taken seriously, he wants students to know that they are not alone in this process.
“I want students to understand that they have a voice, but I also want students to understand that they have a partner,” Sawyer said. “Administration is not the enemy, and I think it becomes easy for us to point to someone as the enemy. I have the same conversations with faculty. If we say that this is our university, it is, but we all have a role to play. It’s my job to guide, but I can’t guide everyone, I need partners to do this, there’s 10,000 people here. So, how do we create these partnerships?”
Sawyer also mentioned that Quinnipiac is a reflection of a much larger model.
“We are a smaller example of larger society,” Sawyer said. “We haven’t solved homophobia and racism in larger society, so we pull our students to this campus and we can’t assume that we have it all figured out here. But what we do need to hold ourselves responsible for is that we get this information and that we have protocols and practices in place to help us to create an environment that’s conducive to the success of all people.”
While this incident is at the forefront of the concerns for the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at Quinnipiac, Cuttle and other members of the club want students to know that the club is still active in its events and can still be a safe haven for those who feel lost.
“They can always reach out to me,” Cuttle said. “My email is everywhere. They can DM our Instagram. We’re constantly checking our messages. They can come to our club meetings. Our Zoom links are all over our Instagram posts. We don’t want people being put down just for who they decide to love.”