SUU Stands Up for Gender Rights

SUU Stands Up for Gender Rights

– By Ed Kociela –

One of the most comfortable, wonderful places to spend time is on a college or university campus.

It’s a place where encouragement, reflection, intelligence, are supposed to flourish, a place where we are encouraged to think new thoughts, embrace concepts large and small, challenge ourselves. It is an escape from the mundane, a threshold to wisdom and understanding, a place to grasp the ever-important worldview that can change in a heartbeat.

Instead of growing, that worldview seems to be shrinking on two Utah campuses — Southern Utah University and BYU — where gender and LGBTQ rights are being challenged.

Spoiler alert: SUU is handling its situation well, but BYU is not.

As the head newsie in Cedar City for ten years, I always looked forward to the time I spent on the SUU campus.

I was honored to have the opportunity to serve as a guest lecturer a couple of times, but what I enjoyed the most were the times I would just walk the campus and visit students, faculty, and administrators in the student center, library, or beneath one of those majestic trees that decorate the school.

There were plenty of official visits, to be sure, whether for a production by the incredibly talented theater arts department or an event in the spectacular R. Haze Hunter Conference Center. I can remember covering a clash between a rather stuffy SUU President and the most popular professor on campus, and I remember a science instructor inviting me to his classroom to sample toasted crickets and roasted mealworms.

Mostly, I remember stopping in at the student center for a cup of coffee and to pick up on the youthful energy of the students, who always seemed in rapt conversation about what they had just learned in the classroom.

SUU is not a place where students wander in anonymity. It is a small community within a small community that reaches out and embraces its own diversity and conventions, which is why it is sad to see it in the midst of a civil rights lawsuit filed by Richard Bugg, a teacher in the theater arts department who is challenging the use of gender pronouns.

The lawsuit stems from a complaint against Bugg by a student who identifies as non-binary — neither male nor female — and requested to be referred to as “they” and “them.” According to filings, Bugg refrained, claiming it would be a violation of his 1st Amendment rights. The thing is, even a public employer, such as a university, can limit free speech. The university also defends its position by citing President Joe Biden’s Executive Order that says: “All students should be guaranteed an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual violence, and including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The university also has a policy on the matter that appears in the SUU Undergraduate Handbook.

A paragraph under the heading “Gender Identify Announcement” in SUU’s Undergraduate Handbook states the following: ”Students have the right to express their gender identity freely. The faculty are committed to creating a safe, positive learning environment for each and every student. If a student would prefer that we use a specific gender pronoun, please let faculty know during class introductions, office hours, or by email.”

The policy is clear.

Even without such a well-defined policy, you would think that a teacher would have enough respect and courtesy to address students as they wish. To do otherwise is selfish, arrogant, and bullying. A classroom is no place for a political dog whistle. It is supposed to be comforting and welcoming so students can achieve and grow.

Saturday night, a crowd in Provo came out in force to protest when the RaYnbow Collective, a nonprofit group that supports the BYU LGBTQ community, held its annual “Back to School Pride Night” gathering at Kiwanis Park.

The event was intended to offer a welcoming environment for the university’s LGBTQ community. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns and operates the university, has had a long-standing policy of forbidding same-sex romantic partnerships or displays of affection among LGBTQ students. LGBTQ clubs and organizations are not allowed on the campus, so they took their event to a public park where they faced protesters who heckled them with derogatory signage and verbal taunts by a crowd that included current and former BYU students.

The language was foul, the attitude was bigoted, and the environment was hostile. And it came on the heels of yet another verbal assault that was enough to give South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley reason to cancel a season-opening game against the BYU team. Racial slurs were directed at members of the Duke women’s volleyball team during a match at BYU last month, prompting Staley to cancel the upcoming game. South Carolina was scheduled to host BYU in the Nov. 7 season opener this year then play at Provo next season. Staley nixed both games.

“As a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players, Staley said in a statement released by South Carolina last Friday. “The incident at BYU has led me to reevaluate our home-and-home (series), and I don’t feel that this is the right time for us to engage in this series.”

None of this is good for the collegiate experience; none of it is appropriate.

I am pleased to see that SUU is not backing down at the insensitivity and egregious behavior of one of its instructors. Bugg should know better, both as a human being and as an instructor. The world doesn’t spin in his orbit, and he should not even attempt to make an ideological point by embarrassing and ignoring a young student trying to get an education.

I have been a longtime supporter of SUU, particularly its theater arts department, where I made many friends. But, mostly, I am proud of the university and its new president for not allowing this to go unchecked.

A college campus is supposed to be diverse, where people from different cultures, places, beliefs can come together in the pursuit of knowledge and an exploration of our differences. You cannot, however, learn in an environment of disrespect.

As they say at SUU, learning lives forever.

Unfortunately, not everybody seems to understand that.

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