As part of her independent study, senior communications studies major Becca Seeley is conducting a research project that she is extremely passionate about. Seeley is conducting a qualitative study on the campus experiences of the transgender, non-binary and gender fluid population at West Chester University.
Seeley’s study is focusing on issues of safety, inclusion and the participants’ perception of that on campus. Seeley wants to know how safe they feel on campus and to what extent both faculty and classmates accommodate these students’ needs. For example, does a professor make it a point to address a student with their preferred pronouns and name? Is there an ally statement in the course syllabus? These are all small gestures that are actually a big deal.
The main question that Seeley wants her research to answer is: how does this university meet, exceed or fall short of meeting these students’ needs as members of the campus community? As such, Seeley’s goal with this research project is to “continue to do and encourage the things that are meeting [the communities’] needs and also fix the things that fall short of their needs.”
In order to get participants for the study, Seeley posted advertisements around campus with a tinyurl link to follow to fill out an anonymous survey. Seeley also attended a SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Alliance) meeting to inform the members of the club about her research study and encouraged anyone they may know that identifies with one or more of those aforementioned groups to participate.
In order to protect the identities of the individuals, Seeley is not aware of the participants’ identities until she calls them on the phone or meets them in person. The entirety of her research maintains the confidentiality of her participants.
Unfortunately, Seeley has not yet been able to interview her participants due to the weather this week. Many of her interviews were scheduled for Wednesday, March 21, which of course became a snow day and the campus closed. However, Seeley is happy to have gathered 11 participants so far, because she was hoping to gather at least 10. She will spend this week rescheduling with her participants and looking to see if anyone else has applied to partake in the study.
Even with the setback of the weather, Seeley is excited and passionate about her work. “The thing that inspired me to do it is because Dr. Munz just inspires me, how she always makes it a point to emphasize that she wants to call you by the name that you want to be called and the pronouns that you prefer, so I was looking for that kind of thing. Either, ‘yes, a professor has done that for me’ or ‘no, no one has ever done that for me,’ and I want to see how it differs across different departments … because ultimately your experience in and out of the classroom ultimately affects your school performance. For example, if someone uses ‘they/them’ pronouns that should not stop them from speaking up in class,” said Seeley.
Seeley continued by saying, “That is a community that I care about and I think they are an underserved population because they are a small population. They are often times overlooked. There is stuff on campus that involves and helps fit the needs of LGBTQA+ students in general, but those students are of such a specific population that they might need more attention, but I don’t know—I haven’t found out yet what they need. Basically, I just want to let people know that people of these populations exist and they are human beings and they are students just like everyone else. It is important that they are recognized and they are valued and they are treated equitably.”
Seeley will be continuing her studies in graduate school in the fall and is hoping that even if she is not able to fulfill all of her goals with this research by May, she will be able to follow through with it later on. The research that she is doing will help create a positive change in our campus culture by both continuing the practices that are benefiting the transgender, non-binary and gender fluid folks, but also improving the things that may hinder their experience here at West Chester University. Just starting a conversation and recognizing that there are improvements to be made is a small step that will make a meaningful impact.
Kaitlin Brinker is a fourth-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. ✉ KB835149@wcupa.edu.