Dear Students, Staff and Faculty:

In light of disturbing events regarding transphobia on campus this past week, we make the following requests of the university. We stand as a political science department committed to making this campus welcoming to everyone.

We request that the University:

1. Support the Student Mission Day idea of creating gender-inclusive housing.

2. Support the creation of an LGBTQ Studies Minor as a part of WGST in the College of Arts and Sciences.

3. Adopt a formal, institutional commitment in the area of inclusivity in respect to hiring and faculty and staff work life that specifically includes LGBTQ people.

4. Create a consortium of faculty and student development administrators to coordinate a common approach to making the campus a more LGBTQ-friendly experience for students.

5. Revise and reverse university restrictions on student speech and student criticism in the Code of Student Conduct. We strongly condemn efforts made to control, suppress, and censor The Spectator. This contradicts university values of a free exchange of ideas, a spirit of critical thinking, and academic freedom itself.

Sincerely,
The Department of Political Science, Seattle University