Tufts professors take part in Safe Colleges Conference

Tufts played host to the seventh annual Safe Colleges Conference on Saturday, complete with a record turnout and a new agenda. The conference, the largest in New England, began in 1998 in a response to hate crimes and bias incidents occurring on college campuses.

While one of the main focuses of the conference remains on exploring the emotional implications of being openly gay on a college campus, Safe Colleges has taken a subtle turn toward activism. "In the past, we haven't had a theme, and we don't now, but we are definitely trying to focus the entire community on activism," student conference coordinator John Francis said.

"[The conference attendees] learn how to be activists through this, it's great for LGBT and allies to connect with each other and become involved," Tufts' Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) advisor Dona Yarbrough said.

The keynote speaker was Barbara Smith, an acclaimed activist who works on coalition building with other oppressed groups. As an author of books covering race, gender, and sexuality, Smith's perspective on people of color within the LGBT community and racial tension was very important to have, Francis said.

A significant percentage of the guest speakers and workshop organizers were from the Tufts community, including professors Neil Miller and Jonathan Strong from the English department and Robyn Sachs from the ExCollege.

Featured workshops included "The Politics of Gay Issues in the Massachusetts Legislature" and "Creating a Strong Queer Organization on your Campus."

Francis described the workshops as being highly interactive, which encouraged students to participate. "It's a fun place to learn and share ideas about what's going on at their school and attendees learn a lot from each other," he said.

The conference was initially funded by the state department of Education of Massachusetts, as part of the Governor's commission for gay and lesbian youth. When the commission redirected its focus more to suicide prevention in 1999, the funding was pulled for this event, and Tufts stepped in. Currently, the Tufts Diversity Fund supports 75 percent of the funding necessary for the event, and the remaining 25 percent was raised by the 15 members of the planning committee.

"We tried to recruit corporate funding, which was successful for the first time this year," Francis said. "We are trying to create relationships and continued support. Many of the attendees have never felt like they were so welcome before and now they realize that there is this community available. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive."