Fall 2013 - welcome back!

Welcome to all new students, faculty, and staff! The Diversity Network blog is a place you can find information and resources on a range of diversity issues that affect the environment we learn and work in. I hope you check in from time to time and catch up on the news.

This summer was a busy time preparing for the launch of our new Positive Space Level 3 Train the Trainer program, working with community partners to improve local ESL services, and preparing for my sabbatical starting September 21st. Stay tuned for my post the week of September 16th to learn more about the interim Diversity Coordinator starting that week. I will be checking in from time to time over the year and will be back in my position full-time next August.

Positive Space Level One will start up beginning Monday September 16th, 3pm to 5pm in room 377. If you are just joining this blog for the first time, scroll through some of my older posts to learn more about this anti-homophobia education program. You can register by emailing me at my new email address debbie.harrison@flemingcollege.ca


Meredith Pilley SSW faculty takes a pie from coordinator
Kirstin Parry for FAQS fundraiser

Train the Trainer is an exciting new session for those who have completed Level One and Two. While the focus is on giving students an opportunity to develop facilitation experience, we also welcome support staff and faculty who want to attend. It will be held Tuesday September 17th from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm and will include dinner. Students who complete the session and 2 practice facilitation sessions will be able to train other students in future Level One sessions. We have a new tool kit full of useful resources and lots of support lined up to ensure students enjoy the experience.

Karen Tembo and Kaitlin Hartford are Student Accessibility reps this year and they are busy making their presence known around campus, gathering feedback from students about their accessibility needs. A new accessibility action plan is approved and available on the Accessibility web page found under Services. New provincial laws are promoting a barrier-free Ontario by 2025 and the Fleming plan contains many great initiatives that will make the college more universally accessible to students and employees with disabilities. Later in September, Ontario Colleges is releasing a new Human Rights online learning module and all employees will have access through the portal.

We are also looking for new Diversity Network members who will help share information in their areas and give the Inclusive College Committee feedback on how to make the College more welcoming, safe, and inclusive. All employees are welcome, and all student feedback is appreciated.

Finally, for all student and employee human rights complaints, please contact the Fleming Human Rights Officer, Nick Duley, in Human Resources; nick.duley@flemingcollege.ca or ext. 1982.

Positive Space makes learning safe for everyone

Positive Space is now officially launched – thanks to all the 75 faculty, support staff and students who participated in one of the educational sessions this week!

Whenever I am involved in some type of human rights education, whether it’s anti-racism, anti-homophobia, or sexual assault prevention, I am always reminded of how hard it is to dialogue about being “anti” or against something that almost all of us clearly know is wrong. We’d much rather be part of something that is positive, that tells us how far we’ve come. And it’s even harder to accept that we are part of the majority that is making things painful for others.

I heard people struggle with this again this week, as we discussed the “alphabet soup” of LGBTQ and tried to understand how complex our gender identity really is. PARN facilitators have been sharing this Genderbread Person, developed by Samuel Killermann. http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/03/the-genderbread-person-v2-0/

This work challenges the idea that everything is either/or, that being human is much more complex than simply being male or female, gay or straight. Heterosexual allies in the room are responding to the call from the queer community to open up safer spaces for them, and as we hear young people talk about how heterosexual  lives have been limited by old gender codes too, there is this empathic voice that stirs in us and says “me too, I have been put in that box, limited by my gender, or made to feel like parts of me aren’t quite masculine or feminine enough”.

I know when I think about my gay and lesbian friends, family members, and colleagues, I am thankful they have fought for a way of being that makes the world more open. As a woman, I have benefited by having a wider range of role models as to how to be “female” in the world, and I think this is true for men as well.

We have come a long way. There’s no denying that. But students still tell me how distressed they are by classroom discussions gone wrong, when a teacher has not challenged homophobic comments and left them to fend for themselves. Students who have been harassed downtown, or in the hallways, hearing “faggot” muttered under someone’s breath as they go by. Worrying who might see them in the GSA meeting and spread rumours about their orientation. Wondering if they are physically and emotionally safe here.

We need to be having these discussions in the classroom but we also need to manage that discussion in a way that keeps the space safe and respectful. Positive Space training helps teachers and students expand their vocabulary and get used to the discussion, so that the classroom becomes a liberating space for everyone, not just a "tolerant" one where we all end up being a little less human.

Get involved in Positive Space and become an ally. The fall training schedule will be posted by Week 2 and there will be sessions available on every campus.  Pride Week starts Sept. 15th and I hope to see you out at the parade (2pm on George St., Peterborough).

Positive Space makes learning safe for everyone.