Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: News

Media Credit: James Jeffrey A copy of the San Jose State University housing application. Currently, applicants must specify their gender as male or female for housing assignment reasons.

For some students at SJSU, the gender they identify with internally doesn't match up with the anatomy they were born with. A recent nationwide study listed college campuses that provide specific protections and services to these students. SJSU did not make the list.

Unlike 147 other campuses in the country, such as California State University Long Beach and Foothill DeAnza Community College, SJSU has not added "gender identity and expression" to its nondiscrimination policies.

The state of California's nondiscrimination policies are now inclusive of gender identity since the passing of the state Civil Rights Act of 2007. But at SJSU no mention is made of transgender students, gender identity or gender expression under the students' rights section of the SJSU catalog.

"It's a demographic that's here, and it's like they're being excluded," said Ellen Sandajan, a junior photography major.

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition recently compiled its annual Gender Equality National Index for Universities and Schools by sending out more than 40,000 surveys to students and administrators, as well as to members of the faculty and staff of accredited colleges. The study is based on responses to the surveys, campuses' nondiscrimination policies and whether the schools provide gender-neutral bathrooms and housing. This year's results reflect 495 valid survey responses and encompass 278 campuses.

Edith Crowe, a librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library and a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff Association, said the rights of transgender individuals should be a part of any organization's policies.

"It's the cutting edge right now," she said. "It's a way of determining whether or not you're paying attention."

Brittney Hoffman, the gender advocacy group's youth program director, said the idea of students struggling with this issue is "a new evolution" for many university administrators.

Wiggsy Sivertsen, an SJSU faculty counselor, calls herself "the campus pit bull" for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, and wants the Academic Senate to "catch up" with state law. She's written the chancellor in hopes that he will add gender-neutral bathrooms and an updated nondiscrimination policy to the senate's agenda.

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