Paul Bieniek
pbb001@marietta.edu
With the goal of making Marietta College a safer environment for all, MC students and staff clambered through Andrews Hall into the bright, spacious Great Room to attend the latest Safe Zone training session on January 27.
During the three-and-a-half hour event, attendees learned LGBTQ+ vocabulary, participated in a discussion with a student/staff panel, and watched a video about the trials of a teenage transgender couple. At the end, participants had the opportunity to a sign a contract to become official Safe Zone members as part of a visible support network for the LGBTQ+ community.
The session on Jan. 27 was the first in which students could participate as trainees.
Previously the Task Force had focused on training faculty and staff because they believed it was of upmost importance they understood the concerns of LGBTQ+ students first. Senior Maggie Watt, who participated in the training, thinks expanding the program to students is a crucial step.
“While I find it very important for students to identify faculty/staff who are allies, it can be equally important to do the same with peers,” said Watt, a pre-med student. “Although it doesn’t seem like much, the visibility that a Safe Zone sticker, pin or sign provides can offer needed support for a student who may need to seek out an ally.”
The Safe Zone program at Marietta College was developed by the LGBT Task Force, which was created in fall 2012 by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for this sole purpose. The first Safe Zone trainings were held in spring 2014. Jeff Cordell and Andrea Euser-Miller currently serve as co-chairs of the LGBT Task Force and have continued the Safe Zone program. Before the Jan. 27 session, the program had trained nearly 40 faculty and staff members.
Every Safe Zone member receives a sticker to place on their office door. According to Cordell, this is done because the program is all about providing space.
“These are signs that this campus has space where there are people conscious of our journeys to discover who we are, just as there are spaces like clubs and teams to express other aspects of our identity,” he said.
Cordell also expressed enthusiasm, particularly since students can be “moving Safe Zones” by placing Safe Zone stickers and buttons on backpacks or laptops.
Moving forward, Cordell said the Task Force plans to test the impact of Safe Zone through another survey. The goal is then to gradually dissolve the Task Force while informing the college administration how to keep the operation moving forward with higher-level oversight.
In the meantime, Cordell hopes to hold Safe Zone trainings for student organizations so that they collectively become Safe Zones which he believes has the potential to “open a lot of hearts and minds”.
Ultimately, he says the program needs to continue in one way or another to change attitudes about the college.
“I hope we can get to the place where we are just known for being an accepting campus, instead of what I think we tell ourselves, which is that we are a less accepting place,” he said.
