Equity Services held the first faculty-only safe space training session at Carleton May 7, according to equity advisor Smita Bharadia.
Although the training has always been offered for faculty, Equity Services began working with the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA) this year to bring in faculty members who haven’t had the training before, said Sarah Cooper of Carleton’s GLBTQ Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity.
CUASA’s equity committee has been promoting this training to faculty and is now a partner of the university Equity Services department, Bharadia said. The session had a “pretty good turnout,” with about 10 faculty members receiving the training, said Dan Irving, assistant professor of sexuality studies and human rights.
“For people whose identities or experiences aren’t along the GLBTQ spectrum, it’s useful to be able to raise questions in a space where there are no wrong questions, and the answers are readily available,” Irving said.
Safe space training is meant to create “allies” for GLBTQ students, Bharadia said. Students, staff, and faculty who have completed the training are given stickers and flags so they can be easily recognized as supportive individuals, she said.
“Over time, students earned the stickers and became allies but there was a need to start looking at staff and faculty,” Bharadia said.
Two years ago the program’s focus changed to attract more staff and faculty, after starting in 2005 for residence fellows and orientation week facilitators, Bharadia said.
“The whole program has always been evolving as issues and needs change,” Bharadia said.
There’s also a need to specifically target faculty in fields such as engineering and math where GLBTQ issues may not be at the forefront, Irving said.
“We don’t want it only attracting faculty whose research is in [sexuality studies],” Irving added.
“Faculty are the people who students look up to,” Cooper said. “The way they speak and interact with students is really, really important,” she added.
The GLBTQ Centre often receives complaints from students about things that professors and teaching assistants say during class, Cooper said. A particularly sensitive issue is pronoun use when referring to transgendered students, she said.
“It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the student to break down any ignorance some teachers and professors may have,” Cooper said.
The training will continue to be given on a voluntary basis, Bharadia said.
“It has never been mandatory for anybody, because we don’t want people in there that are not safe or trusted,” Bharadia said.
“If we make it mandatory, there’s no point putting up a flag to say, ‘This person is supportive,’” Bharadia added.
