Squeaky Wheel Syndrome

Whoever invented the saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” probably wasn’t referring to the way colleges across America operate, but nonetheless, the saying has become very apt in terms of civil rights for student on campus. There are numerous examples; the most recent one that comes to mind is the instance where George Washington University created a female-only swim hour after lobbying on the part of that university’s Muslim Students’ Association.

Other than the implication that the university might appear to be making an accommodation for one religion, the thing that stands out the most to me is how much official policy is created according to how much (and possibly how often) people speak up. Unfortunately, this situation is only too typical in the majority of universities across the country.

What administrators today need to understand is that no matter how friendly and receptive they might be, if their antiquated policies marginalize people, those people are going to get upset and look towards the administration for answers. The administrators may then feel as if they are being unfairly targeted as sources of oppression when they have done everything they could to make sure their students have a positive experience while at their university. Consequently, it may become difficult for them to listen to the voices of change.

The president of any university will more often than not feel that the rules in place work and are fair for everyone- irregardless of whether they are or not. To admit that they are not would be to admit that the office of the president takes either an active or passive part in discriminating against certain groups of people. Rather than make that admission, it is far easier to not think very much about those groups who don’t enjoy the privileges everyone else does and thus avoid any feelings of guilt that might arise as a result of thinking in new ways. The path of least resistance, in this case, becomes focusing on a plethora of meetings, the daily interactions with co-workers and the occasional interaction with a (likely privileged) student. This is not to suggest that marginalized groups cannot have a meeting with the president of any university; merely that they will spend the majority of their time standing apart from multi-cultural student groups.

Thus it happens that the voice who speaks up the most is the voice who will get recognized the most by university administrators. Another unfortunate truth about university administrators is that they will rarely generate ideas for change on their own, if for no other reason then they aren’t actively thinking about it. This is a truth that I have come face to face with at Shippensburg University.

I’ve written about Shippensburg before as a place that seems generally open to transgender issues, but it’s not necessarily open to creating rules that would benefit transgender students. This is where the disconnect between the good will of the administrators and the inadequacy of the rules come into play. The rules at Shippensburg state that, since I am recognized biologically as a man, I have to either live in a room with another man (which could be problematic once I take my shirt off) or live in a single room at an extra rate. I approached the university about living in a room on campus with a female and was told the reason why they don’t want to do that is because of the reaction the parents might have. Apparently, none of the obstructionist parents have been informed that gays and lesbians can room together on campus and get it on just as often as they please.

Approaching into the second semester of my junior year, I found myself in a curious position. I knew that gender meant more than what you have between your legs, but getting people of the older generation to sign off on this as well was a challenge that would definitely take more than the year and a half I have remaining at college. Any cisgender person gets to live with the gender they identify with and at a normal room rate; this is a privilege I do not enjoy. I talked with just about everyone in the housing process on campus and kept getting the same answer: no, we’re not going to do that. What for them was an enforcement of official university policy for me amounted to discrimination. After spending a few weeks thinking about the problem, the only answer I could come up was to go on a hunger strike.

I must admit to being inspired somewhat by the portrayal of Alice Paul in the movie Iron Jawed Angels. In the movie, Paul gets thrown into prison for picketing a wartime president in an attempt to gain women the right to vote. While in prison, she commences a hunger strike because she views herself as a political prisoner who is unjustly incarcerated.

I began my hunger strike on a Friday. I skipped breakfast to email everyone I had met with to inform them about what was going on. The Vice-President of Student Affairs scheduled a meeting with me to take place 4 hours later. I wasn’t consulted about what time would be good for me. I was offered was is called a “disability single.” This is a room that has its own bathroom and is generally meant for students who have physical disabilities. I decided to take the offer, and as I did, I started asking questions.

If the university was capable of offering me this room before, why hadn’t they done so when I was talking with all the people I talked to? Why wait until I stopped eating to make the offer? The answer: because through my actions, I was now speaking in a louder voice that they couldn’t ignore. Putting my own health at risk for something I believed in must have caused quite a stir on that Friday morning when I finally decided to drop the bomb.

I’ve had mixed reactions since I decided to tell people about the hunger strike. Mostly, they were positive. At the time, I thought it was taking things a bit too far but after the meeting I had, I realized that the easiest way for social justice to occur on any campus anywhere is when students bring things to a head and force administrators to pay attention. If this is not done, they will continue on as they have been continuing on, falsely assured that everything is just fine.