I am writing to express concern over the lack of protections afforded to graduate student employees at OU.
This weekend, a transgender graduate student instructor was placed on administrative leave over a complaint filed by a student on religious discrimination grounds. Through this student’s efforts, the graduate instructor’s attempt to grade an essay has been transformed into a new front in an ongoing national culture war. Plainly, religious discrimination has no place on a university campus — but neither does discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
This instructor will now be subject to the university’s own review of her conduct, but the wider national focus calls into question their ability to do so fairly. With Gov. Kevin Stitt pressuring the Board of Regents over the outcome of the review, the administration knows there will be a political price for being perceived as insufficiently proactive in dealing with claims of “religious discrimination.” Both the student and instructor deserve due process as the allegations are handled, but political figures seem intent on placing their thumbs on the scale.
As teaching assistants and instructors, graduate students are inseparable from the university’s mission to educate. If conservative activists choose to target us in an attempt to further an agenda, we need an administration that will back us up. We need stronger backing from our university and a union to advocate for our interests when we are threatened by those who seek to block us from furthering our efforts to inform, to research and to educate.
