May 8, 2004 Minutes

UC San Francisco

Attendees:

UC Berkeley: Shawn DeMille (Vice Chair), Jonathan Winters
UC Davis: Sheri Atkinson, Gabriela Jiménez, Mauricio Kindell, Jeff Lagasca, Diego Luna, Ed’d Luna, Aldrich Tan, Nathan Thomas, Deirdre Williams
UC Merced: John White
UC Riverside: Clare Gmur, F. Curtis Lubbe, Christina Marable, Bryon Nuttall, Tatiana Svolopoulos, Nancy Jean Tubbs (Chair), Jocelyn Wong (Student Chair)
UC San Diego: Sarah Archibald, Shaun Travers
UC San Francisco: David Bell, Shane Snowdon
UC Santa Barbara: Kyle Richards (Secretary)
UC Santa Cruz: Deb Abbott
Not present: UCI, UCLA, LANL, LBNL, LLNL, UCOP
Guest: Judith Boyette, Associate Vice President for Human Resources & Benefits, University of California

9:35am Meeting is called to order.

9:35am Welcome & Introductions

9:38am Review agenda

9:41am Approval of the minutes, Shawn DeMille moves, John White seconds, Approved by acclimation.

9:42am Discussion on Judy Boyette’s visit

1. Some policies have changed to benefit LGBT students, staff, & employees, but procedures may not have been updated to comply
2. Need HR, Student Affairs, and other units to train staff on policies as they are updated
3. Misinformation is prevalent (e.g., Nancy told partner had to be IRS tax dependent & Shaun told partner had to live with him one year before eligible for DP benefits)
4. Websites have wrong information
5. OP Survey for Regents Report: Documents inequitable treatment of DPs & married spouses. How will findings be corrected?
6. Trans benefits (except surgical) for employees, but not for students (must be extended campus by campus)—need organizing plan to get coverage for students
7. Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) health benefits for employees (SF City & County do it now)
8. Retired DP's used to have to pay for death benefits provided for free to married couples
9. Health benefits not available to opposite-sex domestic partners (only to same-sex DPs)
10. AB205 (effective Jan ’05) Domestic Partners Rights & Responsibilities
11. AB196 (effective Jan ’04) “Gender Identity” Nondiscrimination in Employment & Fair Housing

9:58am Conference Report (Shaun Travers)

1. Conference surveys
2. Student response: “I went through my looking glass, and I found my Alice”
3. Week before conference, capped at 500 due to facilities limitations – wait list of participants, some turned away at the door
4. Pre-registration: people want to be able to pay with credit cards next year
5. Food: mostly good, some hated it. Snacks between sessions were popular. Did not fully meet the needs of vegans
6. Parking: Fine
7. Staff & Volunteers: good comments, except for the registration difficulties and people being turned away
8. Keynote speaker Friday night (Message: do not live in fear) mixed reactions
9. Cal State Summit: few comments, many did not know it was happening
10. Chancellor gave a welcome
11. Dred – performer got all positive remarks
12. Films: cost a lot, and people did not attend
13. Dance: overall great remarks (but not enough water)
14. Pat Washington: great remarks (but “too political”)
15. Budget: came in at budget. Funded fully through grants & registration (& $4000 from UCSD Rainbow Center budget)
16. John White: host a roundtable discussion at next year’s conference to advise UC Merced student life/ housing staff on LGBTQI programming needs

10:20am Guest Judy Boyette arrives

1. Welcome to Judy
2. Picture available from fall meeting: Atyourservice.ucop.edu
3. Need more resources of people who understand issues and can help make sure they are doing the right thing – dedicated fellowship, someone dedicated to help her work on these issues
4. System-wide audit of discrepancies between DPs and spouses – many examples still exist
5. Idea: Set up regular audits of various programs – follow up with changes
6. Idea: Combine T sensitivity training with sexual harassment training
7. Supervisory training (proposal has been in the works for years) not just training on rules, but also on sensitivity and understanding of rationale of policies as well (purpose: to treat people equally)
8. Make this training a pilot module for supervisor training
9. Judy: Strategize with MRC Greenwood – new Provost of UC – to get a commitment to work on student tuition & financial aid concerns (and student health insurance)
10. Shane: UCLA and UCB student health insurance plans include limited trans health benefits
11. Including SRS into health benefit plans for employees – waiting for information back from health insurance carriers; suggest revisiting issue in June (when quotes due back)
12. Shane: Starting July 1, city & county of San Francisco will include SRS in its health insurance policies
13. Judy: Kaiser patients did not know that Kaiser provided Trans-knowledgeable providers
14. Shane: Cal Endow providing $$ for state-wide summit (March 2005) of all medical schools in CA, including the 5 UC schools
15. UC benefits booklets erroneously say transsexualism is still excluded from health benefits (Blue Cross/ Blue Shield & Western Health Advantage). Letter to all employees at health insurers’ cost will correct this misinformation
16. Idea: Make a video? documenting incidents of misinformation
17. Shaun: MSAP (Management Supervisory Program) week-long program. Does not include diversity training. It needs to.
18. Labs: concerns about losing DP benefits if UC brings in an outside partner. If this happens, they will still use UC policies in terms of HR decisions.

11:36am Restroom resolution & officer election procedures

• Editorial changes made in the language of the resolution

12:14pm Description of officer positions

12:18pm Lunch/ Caucuses

2:40pm Reports from Caucuses

Student Caucus Report:

Action Agenda Items

1. Establish LGBTQI Studies Program on every UC campus
2. Mentorship Programs for LGBTQI students
3. QPOC recruitment & retention

Directives:

1. Compile resources from campus ally programs
2. Address high AP/Disqualification of LGBTQI students

Organizational Considerations:

1. Monthly conference calls using www.freeconference.com on first Sunday of the month at 6pm (next one on June 6)
2. Pre-SCOM meeting campus student reports

Faculty/Staff Caucus Report:

1. Trans inclusion in student health insurance. A campus-by-campus issue that UCLGBTIA can address as an association.
2. Trans housing issues. Educate the SCOM with perspectives of Trans students. Go to meetings of housing administrators to strategize and educate. A campus-by-campus issue that UCLGBTIA can address as an association.
3. Climate for LGB and Trans students in housing, including roommate matching policies.
4. Create better academic links between UCLGBTIA and faculty. Need greater faculty participation. Missed opportunity to shape new Academic Senate language on diversity to include LGBT issues. Look at state of LGBIT studies and curriculum inclusion.
5. Intersex issues. Address how medical schools train.
6. Campus climate, safety, and hate incident response. Some resources on UCLGBTIA web site. Learn about results of 2002 UC-wide student survey, which had one LGBT-related question.
7. Health issues and the need for UCOP to train campuses to handle claims for care.
8. Marriage equality issue. UCLGBTIA role in educating how marriage and domestic partnerships affect same-sex partners. Clear that we advocate for equity and full equality. Address at next SCOM meeting whether UCLGBTIA should pass a resolution.
9. Directors of LGBT resource centers losing funding, staffing, and a voice with new administrative reorganizations. Watch out for the Lavender Ceiling. Need for funding to continue training and provide educational materials.
10. Directors will meet in Summer 2004 to strategize these issues before the academic year.

Discussion of Caucuses:

1. Appreciate student caucus space, but need to integrate student issues more into the overall organization.
2. Feeling a lack of student issues and student voice in the organization
3. Encourage participation in online conference calls
4. Encouraged students to make sure their issues get on the next SCOM agenda when the call for agenda items is announced

3:02pm Officer Elections

Student Chair Nominations
Jeff Lagasca (Ed’d Luna nominates, Dierdre Williams seconds) accepts
Ed’d Luna (Tatiana Svolopoulos nominates, Jocelyn Wong seconds) declines
Clare Gmur (Jocelyn Wong nominates, Christina Marable seconds) accepts

Vice Chair Nominations
Nancy Jean Tubbs (Shane Snowdon nominates, Sarah Archibald seconds) accepts
Bryon Nuttall (Bryon Nuttall nominates, Christina Marable seconds) accepts
Aldrich Tan (Jeffrey Lagasca nominates, Dierdre Williams seconds) accepts

3:08pm Jonathan Winters moves to close nominations, Kyle Richards seconds, Approved by acclamation.

3:08pm Candidates give statements on their qualifications

3:25 Upcoming Meetings

Fall 2004 October 23 @ UCSB
Winter 2005 February 18 @ UC Davis
Spring 2005 Date TBA @ UCLA
Fall 2005 Date TBA @ UC Santa Cruz

3:28pm Revised Gender Neutral Resolution is read to the group

• Jonathan Winters moves to accept by acclimation, Sarah Archibald seconds
• Resolution is approved.

3:23pm Campus caucuses on voting

3:49pm Announcement of the election results

• New Student Chair: Jeff Lagasca
• New Vice Chair: Nancy Jean Tubbs

3:52pm Discussion on Marriage Issue

1. Equity and equality issue
2. Jocelyn: we could write a resolution opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment (UCR resolution)
3. Shaun: actions to encourage LGBTQIA people to vote
4. Deb: include candidates’ stands on marriage issue on websites? Without endorsing a particular candidate
5. Links to national LGBT groups; websites. Go there to look for more information
6. Voter registration drives/ links to website
7. Include voter registration information at1st year welcome events

3:58pm Jocelyn moved to have co-chairs initiate email dialogue regarding the marriage issue (Dierdre seconded). Approved by acclamation.

3:59pm Reports:

• UCSB LGBTQ Studies minor approved last quarter
• UC Davis: Under the Rainbow event conference fundraiser

4:01pm Jonathan Winters moves to adjourn meeting. Kyle Richards seconds. Approved by acclamation.

Minutes submitted by Kyle Richards.