The Hollins Quadrangle

Letters To The Quadrangle Board

Response to "Campus Safety" published March 2006:

Rachel,

I just had a chance to read your article yesterday. I appreciate your professionalism. My number one concern is and always has been, since I came to Hollins University in 2000, the protection of this entire community and I am committed to finding the best ways to meet that goal.

Thank you for your support,



David J. Carlson, Director

Department of Campus Safety

Hollins University

Response to "A Bitter Taste: Admissions And The Queer Community" published February 2006:

I was greatly upset by the way that the admissions department was being portrayed in "A Bitter Taste: Admissions and the Queer Community," especially because no information was provided on this year's training. Unlike Ms. Parker, I attended tour guide training for the 2005- 2006 school year, and during the training process a point was made to ensure honesty about the queer community on the Hollins campus. I was informed that I was welcome to divulge my sexuality if I felt comfortable doing so. The admissions department stated to me that, if a question was raised about Hollins GLBTQ life, I was to answer it with what I deemed an appropriate response.

At no time was I told to say, "there are no more lesbians here than on any other campus." I was told Hollins Admissions Department does not poll students on their sexuality, so there is no actual statistic to provide to prospective students. While I was not a student at Hollins during the last school year and cannot comment on training that might have occurred, I can say that the admissions department is trying hard to be GLBTQ friendly. The current training reflects this. I feel that this article was misleading and factually skewed.


Amy Dixon

Amy-
Thank you for your reply. I did not intend for this year's training or in fact the training period to be the focus of the piece; my intent was to make sure the campus understood Ashley's reasons for protesting so publicly and quitting. And the article was not factually skewed; I explicitly stated that she did not attend '05 training:

" While she was not present for 2005 tour guide training, she says that in 2004 training, 'it was implied that guides should avoid/negate any notion that of an active LBGTQ community on campus.'"

I never said that those trained in 2005 were told to hide their sexuality; I reported Ms. Parker's interpretations directly:

When she gave tours and parents/students asked about same-sex relationships , Ms.Parker was told to say that there was no more at Hollins than at any other school. "Straight students were more than welcome, [even] encouraged to speak about [their] off-campus activities involving meeting boys&sex as long as it was 'appropriate'. But a gay student talking about OUTloud was considered to be '[sexual]' and thus inappropriate. I thought that if there was a double standard than nobody should be allowed to talk about their personal lives on tours," Ms. Parker said. "If a parent/student asked about lesbians, the general answer was 'we don't have any more than any other school'."

I reported one person's specific experiences with admissions; I do not generalize, most of the content you object to is in Ms. Parker's direct quote, not in my words.
I did not obtain information about this year's training because, as I said, that was not my focus. Additionally, the Quadrangle was concerned at the time about secrecy, and I wanted to keep the number of people whom I told about it to a very bare minimum. My information was based on what Ashley Parker told me, and my article was written, to some extent, from Ashley's point of view.
Biased? Yes. But the Quadrangle makes no claims on complete lack of bias; our duty is to promote alternative views of campus news, tell the stories that will not be told in the Columns or by the administration. This isn't a fair and balanced piece, true. But I'm not as concerned with fair and balanced as I am with getting unheard people heard.
I would like to point out that I commended the admissions office for their apology and their stated support of the LBGTQ community in the last few paragraphs.
I am sorry that you feel my presentation of the admissions office was so unfair, but I will not apologize for it. The article is based on one view of admissions from someone who has been mistreated by the office. In search of the truth, I tried to represent her view fairly through representing her experience and not making generalizations about the way that they've treated others.
Thank you for your time in writing to the Quadrangle. I think you bring up a fair point and additional and pertinent information.

-RMJ

I spoke to an admissions counselor and they confirmed that last year there was no training. Ashley received one on one training (and this was confirmed by the person who trained her) The admissions counselor denies ever saying no more than anywhere else). I have also read the tour guide manuals form the past 26 years and the "no more than any where else" quote was never printed. As a matter of fact the 2001 manual say clearly that admissions doe not poll students so tour guides were to state they did not know the figure and were to discuss HARMONY, the GSA of the time.



Amy Dixon

The Quadrangle’s purpose is to fill in the blanks, to speak on topics and preach our opinions. Everyone is welcome to submit and everything we print is opinion-based and meant to be taken as such. We do not speak for Hollins University, but we do speak for a community we love enough to criticize.
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