Bonny Harper, Campus Carrier Editor-in-Chief
After seeking official approval for more than a decade, a campus-wide email sent this morning by College President Stephen R. Briggs announced that LISTEN, Berry’s LGBT awareness group, has been approved for official recognition as a campus organization.
Between 10 and 11 a.m., Briggs sent the email to Berry faculty, staff and students. The email stated that a committee had been formed at the beginning of the summer to “find a way forward that improves our community as a place to live, study and work, one that acknowledges the reality and depth of differences of belief” in regard to the renewed conversation at the end of the semester about the college’s relationship with LISTEN.
LISTEN’s purpose, according to Briggs email, is “to support and educate in regard to lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) concerns.”
Junior Rebekah Ingram, president of LISTEN, said the group exists to provide a way for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer (LGBTQ) students and their straight peers to interact.
“In my words, (LISTEN’s purpose) would be: one, to offer a safe place for those who do identify as LGBTQ just to talk and feel safe, and two, to be a place for straight allies like me to connect with LGBTQ folks to offer solidarity and encouragement,” Ingram said. “There’s a lot of psychological research to back the necessity of a group like LISTEN on campus, so that gives a good, solid basis for LISTEN’s purpose as well.”
The Listen Committee
The Listen Committee was formed in late May and consisted of faculty and staff members Michael Bailey, Christina Bucher, Sherre Harrington, Debbie Heida (co-chair) Jonathan Huggins, Jeffrey Lidke (co-chair) and Susan Logsdon-Conradsen; SGA officers Ben Riggs and Jacob Stubbs; and Rebekah Ingram.
The committee, which was comprised of faculty, staff and students, met four times over the summer, averaging a couple of hours per meeting, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Debbie Heida said.
Briggs added that the committee members did individual work on the side in order to prepare for the meetings.
Associate Professor and Chair of Religion and Philosophy Jeffrey Lidke said that the committee’s study covered a broad scale of viewpoints, focusing on four documents that were produced by the committee and are internal to the committee itself.
“One document articulated a traditional/conservative Christian view on sexuality more broadly, and alternative sexuality particularly, and a second looked at this same set of issues from a liberal/progressive Christian perspective,” Lidke said. “There was a third document that analyzed the history and current research from a psychological perspective, and a fourth helped us put LISTEN in the context of the history of the LGBTQ movement historically.”
Lidke added that all four documents “emphasized rigorous scholarship,” and that the committee felt that between the four documents, a good range of perspectives was covered.
At the conclusion of their work, the committee submitted a report, dated Sept. 4, 2012 and now available on VikingWeb under the “Berry Community” tab, to Briggs.
In the report, the committee made three recommendations, which Briggs summarized in the campus-wide email as follows: “to recognize Listen as a student organization for support and education on LGBT issues; to strengthen the culture and study of Christianity through the work of the Chaplain’s Office; and to embrace the tension of controversial issues as a means to educate our campus community.”
Briggs, who ultimately made the final decision to approve LISTEN, said that he charged Heida with working with the members of the student group for the first initiative, and he asked Chaplain Jonathan Huggins to work with Heida to decide how best to move forward with the second initiative. Heida will also work with other offices to advance the third initiative.
In regard to the second initiative—that of strengthening the culture and study of Christianity through the work of the Office of the Chaplain—Huggins listed several projects that his office hopes to implement, including strengthening the Lumen Lecture Series; beginning a chaplain’s book club to study Christian literature; beginning a pre-seminary society for students interested in pursuing Christian vocations; and gaining more visibility for Mount Berry Church in college publications and websites.
A history of rejection
Heida said the actual student recognition process for LISTEN began about nine years ago.
Briggs said the reason it has taken nine years for LISTEN to gain official recognition is due to the controversy within different denominations of Christianity surrounding the subject of extra-marital sex.
“In our mission statement there are a couple of statements about our being a campus that is ‘Christian in spirit.’ So just as in the Christian church at large, this has been a controversial issue, it’s inevitably meant that the controversy has carried out into society in general and also on campus,” Briggs said. “There are different points of view within the Christian community at large about sex outside of marriage, of any form. It’s not simply about homosexuality.”
Associate Professor of the Evans School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Christina Bucher said she was involved as a faculty member with LISTEN from before it was denied recognition by the Board of Trustees in 2003, until October 2011, serving as an unofficial adviser to the group.
“I withdrew myself from serving in that capacity, for I no longer in good conscience could be part of a policy—unofficial ‘status’—that I found fundamentally unjust,” Bucher said.
Bucher also said LISTEN is not the first version of such a group to exist at Berry.
“Shortly before I arrived at Berry in 1995, then-Chaplain Larry Green attempted with some students to start an organization called the Gay and Lesbian Awareness Society (GLAS). My understanding is the group was turned down for official status,” Bucher said. “LISTEN was approved by the Student Life Council and then-College-President Scott Colley in 2003 before the group was denied status. Prior to that time, a completely unofficial group existed—Rainbow Berry—that met primarily off campus. I worked with them as a faculty support person as did some others.”
The conversation about LISTEN’s lack of official group status was brought up again in the spring, in response to an incident occurring in a residence hall and reported by a student, Heida said.
Briggs said that, after the report of that incident, it was thoroughly investigated—reviewed by an outside agency as well as a group of faculty—and the incident has now been cleared.
What’s next for LISTEN
LISTEN’s first meeting is already scheduled for next Thursday night, Sept. 20, Bucher said.
Briggs said LISTEN will continue to do what it has been doing, only now under official status.
“It formalizes what’s been happening informally, which was their hope,” Briggs said.
Ingram said LISTEN plans to continue the conversation about LGBT issues under its new official status.
“We can use (the money we will now receive through the student activity fee) to bring folks in from the community and promote discourse about LGBT issues, and it allows us to go into the community to combat things like bullying in schools, to promote education and awareness,” Ingram said. “We really plan on becoming active on campus, helping facilitate conversations here as well.”
Reactions from the committee members
Huggins said he thinks officially recognizing LISTEN will be a positive act on the college’s part.
“I think it’s a good decision to officially recognize LISTEN because it provides a space for students who may identify or struggle with or have questions about sexuality,” Huggins said. “It also shows Berry’s commitment to provide a safe and supportive environment for any kind of student that comes here.”
Lidke said that he hopes the campus as a whole can feel “a deep sense of joy, relief and appreciation” due to the president’s final decision.
“First of all, I hope that the community will really come to see that the president’s decision to affirm the recommendations by the Listen Committee highlight Berry at its best, and that this is an action that is truly ‘Christian in spirit.’ It’s my hope that this is a decision that we can celebrate as a community,” Lidke said. “Secondly, the way in which the committee proceeded provides for us a model for how we can negotiate and work through our differences towards a constructive outcome.”
Ingram said the committee and Briggs should be commended for this decision.
“I think we should be proud of ourselves for embracing diversity and for coming to such a good place in spite of all the tension that’s there, and I think we should also praise our president for taking such a leap of faith,” Ingram said. “This is a very positive thing, and it’s going to facilitate a more healthy, diverse campus.”
Heida said the main goal in all of this is to move forward in improving Berry as a whole.
“All of these recommendations make Berry a better place. So we move forward in making it a better place,” Heida said.