University President Morton Schapiro and Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Banis issued a strong statement early Wednesday in support of Northwestern’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The e-mail was sent in response to growing national attention to hate crimes and bullying targeted at the LGBT community.
The letter, sent to members of the NU community, referenced the case of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, and hate crimes in New York City in which three men were brutally attacked for being gay.
“That just saddened us,” Banis said. “We wanted to reinforce the kind of institution we want Northwestern to be and we wanted our LGBT students to know that we value their being here. We want this to be a safe place and we will protect them as best we can.”
Doris Dirks, coordinator for a number of student organizations including the LGBT Resource Center, said she had contacted Schapiro, Banis and Assistant Dean of Students Jim Neumeister about sending out a message to the community.
After Clementi’s suicide, Banis said he contacted the Rainbow Alliance to offer his support and state that harassment would not be tolerated at NU. Over the past two weeks, he said the issue became more pressing.
The letter asked students, faculty and staff to join Schapiro and Banis in supporting NU’s LGBT community and reminded students of the University Statement of Community Principles and Values.
“Those statements are more than just expectations,” Schapiro and Banis wrote. “They are expressions of our core values.”
The statement also urged students who have been the victim of discrimination or harassment, or know of someone who has, to contact the LGBT Resource Center, the Sexual Harassment Prevention Office or the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.
Weinberg freshman Julia Coppelman said it was easy to get stuck in “the NU bubble” and forget that national issues affect members of the student body.
“It’s important that (Schapiro and Banis) addressed it as a University issue,” she said.
National attention to LGBT issues notwithstanding, Dirks said instances of bullying and discrimination had affected the community for longer than the media has been publicizing them.
“These things have been going on quietly for years and years,” she said. “All of a sudden it’s an ‘issue,’ whereas before it was just something a lot of kids just had to suffer through.”
Dirks said she was grateful to the extra attention because it sparked conversations. Still, she said she didn’t know how long it would last.
“Just knowing that people at the top of the institution care, they notice it, they care about it, it’s an institutional priority, you as people are important here; I think that message is important and needs to go out,” Dirks said.
