A banner stating "Thanks for the e-mail. Now where's out policy?" hung from the trees outside Ballou earlier this week compliments of the group formerly known as Tufts Students Against Discrimination. The group, which now refers to itself only as TSAD, is working to strengthen the University's nondiscrimination policy, and continues to clamor for a stronger, University-wide decree against discrimination.
Although University President John DiBiaggio addressed the issue in an e-mail to students last week, the group feels that more action needs to be taken to fix what they perceive a holes in the current nondiscrimination policy.
Today, the group is launching a student education campaign to garner support for their month-long quest. They will be tabling the dining halls and distributing a fact sheet to the dormitories, among other promotional activities. TSAD is asking that both the administration and student government adopt policies that protect not only a person's identity, but their acceptance of that identity as well.
"That will hopefully encourage more mobilization on campus," said TSAD organizer Thea Lavin. "What we're basically asking is that the administration reaffirm the nondiscrimination policy."
TSAD was formed last month after the Tufts Community Union Judiciary (TCUJ)'s ruling on a complaint against the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) raised concerns about the strength of Tufts' nondiscrimination policy. The TCUJ ruled that then-junior Julie Catalano was improperly discriminated against last year based on her homosexuality itself, but also stated that the TCF could legitimately exclude her from a leadership position for her belief that homosexuality is biblically acceptable - provided that the group applies that standard equally to all of its members. TSAD, however, feels that individuals cannot separate their identity from acceptance of that identity, and thus believes that this decision legitimizes discrimination on campus.
In order to address this issue, TSAD is pushing for change on several fronts, and much of its effort has been focused on getting the administration to revise the current nondiscrimination policy. They feel that DiBiaggio's e-mail to the student body was a step in the right direction, but that it was too vague and that more action needs to be taken to address the issue.
"It was good for the administration to write that e-mail, but it wasn't good enough. The administration says that they're against discrimination in terms of sexual orientation, and yet they refuse to take a stand on the issue that the J was confused about," said TSAD member Vanessa Dillen. "They're sort of giving this blanket statement without addressing the central question."
"The administration has been deeply disappointing. It took President DiBiaggio over two weeks to respond, and when he did respond, many students found it vague and apathetic," Lavin said. "The administration isn't willing to initiate the reaffirmation."
TSAD is taking action outside the administrative channels as well, and wants to prevent student organizations from discriminating by giving the TCUJ clearer guidelines on what constitutes a violation of the University's policy. It is also pushing the Committee on Student Life to adopt a policy that would require all groups applying for recognition or re-recognition to prove that they have a history and constitution that is free from discrimination.
It is also working with the TCU Senate's constitutional reform committee to write a nondiscrimination policy into the section of the TCU constitution that deals with the TCUJ, which would give the body more leeway to interpret the policy. The proposed addition would state explicitly that identity and self-acceptance are linked and calls for the automatic derecognition of groups that violate the nondiscrimination policy, according to Senate parliamentarian Benjamin Lee.
"By putting the nondiscrimination policy into the constitution, hopefully, when another group came up like this, they would defend the spirit of the policy," Lee said. "Hopefully, this would give them the freedom to be more interpretive.
However, the changes to the constitution are still in the discussion stage and will not be voted on by the student body until next April. Members of TSAD say that the issue is no longer about TCF, and that they are simply working to prevent discrimination from occurring in the future.
"The decision has been made about TCF, and I don't want to open that at all," said TSAD member Courtney Young. "In the future, I'd like to see a little more action taken. If a group violates the nondiscrimination policy or the Tufts rules, then they shouldn't be recognized. I don't see any reason why they should."
Young said that TSAD's work has received a positive response from students who know and care about it, but that many are unaware of the issue and of TSAD in general. "I'm sure there are still people who don't know what's going on," she said. "I think that the issue has so many different aspects that it's hard to get every single person on campus educated."
