Beginning last week, the Roddey McMillan Record released a survey to the student body regarding Winthrop’s approach to diversity and inclusivity on campus.
The myriad of early responses have been interesting to consider as Winthrop’s administration seeks to expand its efforts to promote diversity on campus.
When asked how they felt that Winthrop has promoted diversity and inclusivity on campus, students responded quite differently, ranging from avid praise for Winthrop Administration to chagrin for what some sees as a massive failure on the University’s part.
“personally, I think the campus does a great job with transgender inclusion,” says Ben Keenan, a sophomore computer science major. “The fact that I can put my name on my diploma and most professors won’t ever know my dead name…is really important to me.”
Kierra Rose, a biology major, feels the opposite. “The Winthrop Administration does not seem to promote diversity unless they have to save face in a moment where they are called out for it. The clubs make more of an effort to [explicitly] promote diversity than Winthrop’s Administration. Most events that are about diversity on campus are hosted by clubs, not Winthrop Admin.”
Despite initial positive responses, when subsequently asked if said efforts were doing enough to promote diversity on campus, the responses that came back were more negative.
Luke Reed, a biology conservation major, chimed in on what he felt was Winthrop’s lack of consideration for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. “They need to be more inclusive of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. I think all the organizations that have movies or presentations should have options for captioning… [or] an interpreter provided if a hard-of-hearing student requests them. Their efforts toward inclusion for the deaf community is not enough.”
Mary Fairfull, a returning senior, expressed her grave concern that Winthrop did not consider LGBTQ+ students enough during her time here. “I’m literally scared to come out on campus to professors or RAs because there’s very little action taken to show support for queer folks on campus, in my opinion. They could easily put up “safe space” stickers on offices and at the front desks and they just don’t… I just feel like there’s more to be done and Winthrop is barely doing the bare minimum.”
The RMR is currently compiling more responses to release in full in the February Issue.
Image Courtesy of Getty Images