Starting later this month, students, faculty and staff will be able to make the campus more LGBT friendly through SafeZone training.
SafeZones are areas where a person can feel safe regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression, be it anything from an office, dorm room or an entire campus. Someone who enters a SafeZone would know that they were in a location where they will not be persecuted in any way for their sexual or gender identification.
The training is designed to educate those who are interested in becoming allies to the LGBT community, and it provides a curriculum on the language used by the LGBT community, issues of discrimination and the expectations of the LGBT individuals might have on allies.
Ashleigh Moyer, director at the Office of Student Activities and SafeZone trainer, said that the SafeZone program has been steadily improving and accepted at UT.
“It’s been very well received and it’s been steadily growing,” Moyer said. “We’ve been able to grow our trainer base. … More trainers allows us to accommodate more requests for training.”
Those interested in training can register online at safezone.utk.edu. The website also offers a list of register faculty and offices. The registration is more of a formality used to gauge how many trainers need to be available, and Moyer said that they rarely turn down those that “walk in” to a training session.
The website also offers a list of register faculty and offices.
Goals of the training include participants being able to identify campus resources available to the LGBT community and allies, use basic terms used by the LGBT community, how to report incidents of harassment and discrimination and how to be supportive as an ally amongst other goals.Moyer also said that SafeZone training does not have to be just to become certified and have an office area become a SafeZone. People can come just to become better educated about the LGBT community and how to be an ally.
“When we schedule training, we try to make it clear that we prefer nobody feel required to take the training” Moyer said. “… Just because someone goes through the training, it doesn’t mean they have to become a SafeZone.”
Those that do become certified will receive a placard and sticker that indicates that the person has completed the training and their area is in fact a SafeZone.Training for faculty will occur on Jan. 25, Feb. 28 and April 12.
Training for students will occur Jan. 27 from 3-6 p.m. at the UC room 220, Feb. 17 from 4-7 p.m. at the Black Cultural Center Multipurpose Room, and on April 7 from 3-6 p.m. again at the UC room 220.
Student and faculty/staff training are both very similar. Joel Kramer, assignment manager with UT Housing and SafeZone trainer, said that the training is very discussion based, and that differences emerge mostly in how the two different groups navigate the course of dialogue.
“Faculty/Staff is usually more focused on the university setting,” Kramer explained, “like, ‘How can I help customers who come to me?’ whereas students are looking at it more like, ‘I live in the residence hall, this might affect my neighbors, this might affect the community I live it.'”
Kramer’s involvement goes back to the 1990s when Kramer was an RA in college. He and his fellow RAs all took training to be a part of SafeZone network.
Kramer said that the training curriculum for SafeZone training is fluid from university to university, allowing for trainers to craft a program that fits the needs of the specific campus. Kramer said that a standout aspect of UT’s program is that it often times offers its SafeZone resources to neighboring schools that wish to start their own SafeZone programs, such as Maryville College.
Kramer said half-jokingly, “So even though you don’t always think of UT as, you know, ‘we’re in the lead on LGBT issues,’ this is an area where UT is reaching out to other schools and giving them resources and we are actually ahead of some other people.”
