Our Riverside City College District Board of Trustees passed a resolution to declare support for marginalized students, but does it do enough?
The resolution, in Support of Student Access and Protection, expresses the Board’s desire to support values of inclusivity and diversity in the district.
However, after President Donald Trump lifted the federal transgender bathroom regulations former President Barack Obama had set in May 2016, we began to look for what support, if any, the district provided for LGBT students on our campus and found a lot lacking.
Various administrators have put out statements of support for all students, which is great, but there needs to be more than words and less symbolic legislation.
There needs to be action.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centers can be found in various colleges including UC Riverside.
These centers are usually professionally staffed and provide LGBT resources in one place.
Currently, RCC only has two places for students to find LGBT resources, the Gender and Sexualities Awareness club that meets weekly and a link to the Ally page on the RCC website. Unfortunately, the Ally list – which comprises of contact information of staff who openly support LGBT students – hasn’t been updated since 2013.
Another issue with these options is they lack visibility. Students have done what they can by forming clubs like GSA, but there is only so much they can do.
It is up to our administration to create more resources and help make the current ones more accessible.
Why not create a center like Ujima and La Casa where all these things can be found?
While creating a center may take some time, another good start would be compiling resources such as, a location of all the gender neutral restrooms on campus, local and state resources, contact information for GSA and an updated list of all the Allies on campus.
That information can then be placed in a location on the RCC website frequently viewed by students and visitors.
UCR already has this implemented on their campus so what’s taking us so long?
Viewpoints’ editorials represent the majority opinion of and are written by the Viewpoints’ student editorial board.
