Pride & Inclusivity at SMU

Written by Caitlyn Skelhorn

Thumbnail Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

Header Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

The university campus acts as a home away from home for the years you spend pursuing your degree. As with any home, it is essential to feel safe, welcome, and like you belong. Unfortunately, LGBTQ+ individuals do not always feel safe and welcome in their own homes, so it is crucial for the university campus to help fill that void. Overall, SMU welcomes the LGBTQ+ community and allows queer people to feel included and at home. This article discusses the ways SMU succeeds and fails at providing the LGBTQ+ community with a safe home and how they stack up against other Nova Scotian universities.

SMU offers a variety of programs and services that cater specifically to queer students, as the university is aware of how essential it is for students to feel like they belong on campus. This is why SMUSA (Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association) has a Pride Centre. The Pride Centre is currently not open to students as it is under construction, but SMUSA is hopeful it will be operational later this fall. Once the Pride Centre is open again, it will be a place dedicated to making LGBTQ+ students feel at home. The Pride Centre is located on the 5th floor of the O’Donnell-Hennessey Student Centre and first opened during the 2019-2020 school year. Another proud opportunity returning to SMU this year is the Pride Society. Although SMU’s Pride Society went dormant during the 2019-2020 school year, they are currently in the process of becoming ratified and hope to be active again this school year. SMU’s Pride Society will be a group that strives to provide queer students and allies with a place to feel included and have fun.

Another aspect of SMU that makes it feel more like a home to queer students are the all-gender washrooms located around campus. While the majority of the washrooms on SMU’s campus are male- or female-specific, there are several single-stall, all-gender washrooms. You can find these washrooms on the first and third floors of the Student Centre, near Exit Stair 2. All-gender, or gender-neutral, washrooms are essential for helping LGBTQ+ people feel at home, because not everyone identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth. T hese washrooms offer a safe place to relieve yourself regardless of how you identify. You can also find free tampons and pads in the all-gender washrooms as well as the women’s washrooms. These are provided by the SMU Women’s Centre.

While SMU has the potential to be a proud campus and host pride-focused events, the pandemic and current health guidelines prevent many gathering opportunities from taking place. SMU’s location in the Central Zone of Nova Scotia means that we are in the area with the highest number of covid cases and the most community spread in the province. Other Nova Scotian universities located in the Central Zone are facing the same issues. Dalhousie’s pride society, DalOUT, hosted their Annual General Meeting via Zoom and hosted their Special General Meeting, where they filled their open executive positions, in-person. Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) does not have a ratified pride society, but they do have a Pride Centre located in their Students’ Union building. The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) has traditionally been Nova Scotia’s most progressive and inclusive university, but they too have been affected by gathering limits and last year’s online format, as the university’s Queer Collective hasn’t been active yet this year. Outside of the Central Zone, Acadia University and St Francis Xavier University (StFX) have active pride societies or groups promoting inclusivity and hosting events for queer people and allies.

One aspect of queer inclusion that SMU falls short on is allowing people to use their preferred name, as opposed to their legal one. While SMU allows preferred names to be used on student IDs and in Brightspace, class lists and Banner still use people’s legal names. You can access a name change form for your ID and Brightspace here and at the Service Centre in McNally Main 108. Acadia and MSVU have forms you can fill out and submit to have your preferred name used in as many places as possible, including class lists. This policy that Acadia and MSVU have is essential for making campus feel like home. Usage of preferred names leads to better mental health and a greater sense of belonging.

Another aspect of queer inclusion SMU could do better with is accessibility to information that will benefit the LGBTQ+ community. SMU’s preferred name policy is not well advertised, and you must explore campus to find the all-gender washrooms. Acadia, MSVU, and the Dal Student Union have maps and lists that include the gender-neutral washrooms on campus. These maps and lists make it much easier for people to find washrooms they are comfortable using. By SMU not advertising the locations of the all-gender washrooms anywhere, the feeling of belonging on campus isn’t as strong as it could be.

Altogether, SMU welcomes the LGBTQ+ community and provides opportunities to use your preferred name and gender-neutral washrooms. There are groups and spaces for queer students to gather that will become accessible once gathering limits have increased, but there is still work to be done to make campus feel like home for everyone. SMU should follow the example Acadia and MSVU set with their preferred name policies and accessible lists of gender-neutral washroom locations, as these aspects of queer inclusion go a long way in making a university campus feel like home.

Claire Keenan