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April 5, 2010

PSU, MSSU students team up on sexual-orientation issue

By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Advocates of equal rights protection for gays and lesbians turned out Monday for a rally at Pittsburg State University.

“We hope to continue this in the future,” said Laren Curry, president of PSU’s Gay-Straight Alliance. “It’s not just us (at PSU) who have struggled with nonacceptance.”

The rally focused on a series of protests being waged by a similar organization at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. Some MSSU students have been calling for change in the wording of the school’s nondiscrimination policy to specifically include gays and lesbians. Several members of the PSU group have been participating in weekly sit-ins at MSSU to protest for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the university’s policy.

Speakers included Steve Urie, pastor of the Spirit of Christ Metropolitan Community Church in Joplin, and Hillary Fogerty, an English professor at MSSU and the faculty adviser to the Equality Alliance, a student group.

Urie, who has participated in protests at MSSU recently, criticized MSSU President Bruce Speck.

“The president disappears at every sit-in, and his office is dark,” Urie said to applause from the crowd.

Speck has said that even though MSSU’s policy does not specify sexual orientation, gays and lesbians are protected under it. The MSSU board has called for a review of the policy’s wording.

The issue arose after David Ansley, a member of the MSSU Board of Governors, made an anti-gay slur during a meeting of the panel in February. The member resigned his post a few days later.

PSU policy

PSU’s nondiscrimination policy for students and employees includes protection for sexual orientation. PSU President Steve Scott said in an interview Monday that the policy was updated about five years ago, under the advice of the university’s Equal Employment Opportunity coordinator.

“We took a look and felt like it was an additional component that needed to be in place,” he said. “(The additional language) says that the institution has always been an open place, and we want our students and employees to feel comfortable. Beyond that, I’m not sure it says anything more than that.”

MSSU reaction

Attempts to reach Speck for comment were unsuccessful Monday.

The Globe placed phone calls Monday morning to Speck’s secretary and to Rod Surber, director of university relations and marketing, to request an interview on the status of the university’s nondiscrimination policy.

Surber eventually was reached on his cell phone Monday afternoon after the rally. He stated that Speck did not have time for an interview on the subject, and referred questions to MSSU’s Board of Governors, which has established a committee to review the policy.

“There’s nothing additional to say at this point until the board has a report from the committee,” Surber said.

The Globe again requested an interview with Speck to provide him an opportunity to address Urie’s criticism. Surber said, “He (Speck) probably won’t have any comment.

“It’s certainly (Urie’s) prerogative to make that statement. Dr. Speck has a very busy schedule, and a lot of his lunches are taken up with meetings. Just because his office is dark doesn’t mean anything to me. My office is dark too every once in a while, and it doesn’t mean that I’m not working or attending important meetings.”

Rod Anderson, chairman of the MSSU board, said he does not expect the board to take up the policy issue at its regular meeting on Friday, April 16.

“I have not talked to any of the members of the committee, so I don’t know whether they’ve had a meeting,” he said. “I think (discussion) will be pretty premature. So I would say there probably won’t be anything on the agenda.”





Attendance

More than 30 people, including students from PSU and MSSU, attended Monday’s rally. It was part of “Gorilla Pride: Unity in the Community,” a week of activities on the PSU campus.

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