Hi, everyone. This is Alex Clay again with our final update. It was a bittersweet ending. There was plenty of positives yet it seemed to end with a sour note. Today our main take away was the meeting with Dr. Jordan at 3:30. It was actually a quiet morning. The meeting had Board of Trustee member Susan Dyer, President Jordan, and VP Dr. Howland. We began by reviewing the Steps for Accountability we presented to them a few days prior. Here is the official response post meeting; "Dear Campus Community, Let me again thank the students who came forward in protest over pressing concerns directly impacting our LBGTQ+ community. The College has met with the students who spearheaded the Call Us By Our Names initiative, and we have reached an agreement on virtually all matters raised. We have apologized to our students for what they have experienced and are working quickly to implement our plan of action. We are committed to respecting one another - this is the St. Mary’s Way. Here are the steps we have already taken and what is in progress. Gender Inclusive Housing (or an agreed upon suitable name) Vice President Howland is working with the Open Housing Representative for SGA to arrange a meeting on Thursday, October 21, with all 32 residents currently living in Open Housing. This will help ensure their voices are heard related to changing the name to Gender Inclusive Housing. The process has begun to change what had been called Open Housing to either Gender Inclusive Housing or to a name supported by the majority of our students. Additionally, materials are being developed for the upcoming SMCM Open Houses and Admitted Student Days that will highlight Gender Inclusive Housing (or an agreed upon suitable name) and representatives will be at these events to answer questions. Clear step-by-step instructions on how to sign up for Gender Inclusive Housing (or an agreed upon suitable name) will be created and posted to the Residence Life website. Gender Inclusive Housing (or an agreed upon suitable name) is presently available in suites, townhouses, apartments, and the first-floor left wing of Prince George Hall. Any current resident student as well as any new student who pays the required deposit and submits a Housing Contract by the deadline is eligible to sign up for this housing. All bathrooms in Prince George Hall are being reviewed so that a plan can be developed for repairs and whatever maintenance is needed. Vice President Howland will establish monthly meetings with the Executive Director of Student Life, the Open Housing SGA Representative, and LGBTQ+ Programs Fellow. These meetings will begin within two weeks. Name Change Process Any student wanting to update their One Card can now do so. A number of students have already reported they have successfully done this. The student leaders of the Call Us By Our Names initiative told us the name change process was cumbersome and unreliable as there was no one point of contact. Effective October 15, 2021, the Dean of Students is now the point of contact for the name change process with oversight from Vice President Howland. A process has been created and disseminated by Vice President Howland to all students. Also, this Friday, October 22, 2021, the Name Change Policy Committee is meeting to discuss a draft of that policy. The new ERP system that will be implemented in the fall of 2022, will allow chosen name changes to be reflected throughout the system. The new system will include the ability to change names, photos and gender identification. Gender Neutral Bathrooms As of today, three additional all gender-neutral, wheelchair accessible bathrooms with appropriate signage are in the following academic buildings: Kent, Goodpaster and Schaefer Halls. Renovations are necessary and will be made permanent prior to the start of the spring semester. In total, there are now 47 all gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. As more bathrooms are converted, Vice President Howland will update the LGBTQ+ Student Services Advisory Committee. Transgender Training We will widely publicize the upcoming Transforming Community training sessions taking place for faculty on October 29 (9:20-10:30 a.m.), November 3 (3-4:30 p.m.) and November 15 (9:20-10:30 a.m.) in Glendening Annex, sponsored by IDEAA, the LGBTQ+ Program Assistant and the Coordinator of Diversity and Civic Engagement. We will identify ways to include more transgender training for the campus community as part of the required annual Title IX training and/or the campus diversity training. An important outgrowth of talking with those who are part of Call Us By Our Names is the establishment of regular communication channels so that going forward we are able to have an ongoing dialogue, sharing updates and working together to resolve issues raised. Not all issues can be easily handled, such as a remaining issue raised about personnel. With regard to personnel, the College is committed to assessing the reported concerns. There are clear policies and procedures in place at the College to address reports of discrimination and inappropriate conduct. Those policies and procedures exist to ensure that the College assesses all such reports in a fair and balanced manner. Addressing these matters can take time, and it is neither in the interest of our students, our employees, or our greater campus community, to act hastily, without rigor or process. We must move forward in that spirit. Vice President Howland will work with LGBTQ+ students to revive the LBGTQ+ Student Services Advisory Committee to include faculty and staff representation. With the committee, Vice President Howland will organize each semester a town hall meeting open to the campus community. We are committed to our LBGTQ+ community and respect their rights and the rights of all students to feel safe and welcomed on our campus. We appreciate the courage of the students who came forward. As this letter describes, significant progress has been made—and will continue to be made. We hope the students recognize this progress and move forward with us. We share the belief that these steps, and those to come, are very much in the best interest of the entire St. Mary’s College community. I also believe it is in the best interest of the St. Mary’s College community that the administration building be vacated at this time in order for the College to return to normal operations. Working together, we will make the College stronger and better for all. Sincerely, Tuajuanda C. Jordan, PhD (Pronouns: she/her/hers) President" That email was sent to all students and it covers what we've gone over fine. After the meeting, we (Baz, Liz, and I) walked into Calvert Hall to see at least 8 administration members speaking to the group which had stayed on the home front. Take of that as you will but they were trying to ask us to leave. This was similar to President Jordan asking the three of us at the meeting to leave. Now at this point with the real issues, we had already compromised and discussed the other 95% to death. It was one issue we still struggled with- Kelsey Bush. We wanted to discuss it with the group but were not given the opportunity. We were able to quickly gather that if the apology Dr. Jordan said she would issue was actually issued then we would finalize the sit in. She said no. We restated our points. It felt ridiculous. She eventually went back into her office and left us alone with Tressa (head of PS), Derek Young (Dean of Students), Michael Dunn, and Kelsey Bush. They all sorta asked us our thoughts again and where we were on the sit in- which we repeated how we would leave after the apology we were promised twice nice. After a very awkward thirty minutes, it was issued. The sit in was over. We packed up and went home. But, of course, this isn't the end. The main reason nothing occurred with Kelsey Bush was the lack of formal reports. I guess the reports I made no longer matter because they were pre the system Kelsey had made. In front of Dr. Jordan, I wrote an incident report. And that's my biggest take away from this situation. This world, these people, this school is messed up. I'm tired and done being as eloquent as possible. Any sort of agency I've ever had has been taken away from me over and over again. A sit in is the only way we had any real change on this campus in over 7 years. I'm so tired. We're all so tired. To those still reading this so far, thank you. I really appreciate you. And I want to say that your voice matters. If something happens to you, something big or something small, please feel free to always let someone know. You matter. Your voice matters. Your issues matter. And what happened here shouldn't have to have happened but I guess I'm glad it did. If any major impact truly does come from this sit in is that students are more willing and able to submit these reports when incidents happen. That students know they have agency and they have power. The real next steps are somewhat undefined at the moment being. I'll probably be reaching out to people off campus who can help with these issues because this campus is solely irresponsible when it comes to these types of reports. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to implementing and helping implement all the positive change that we were able to accomplish. And at the end of the day, we were able to accomplish 95% of what we needed. That 5% will just have to wait yet another day. There is no way I am able to show how much I am pleading with you when I say please fill out bias reports. If you're from St. Mary's, here even is the link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwAC4EiLClCHOuXfosmAqsyNwyOm_sG9xbFKzk9Rqeqq1b8w/viewform Racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism. There's even more. Please, please, please report it so that you won't be kicking yourself in the future. It can even be anonymous. I know that was a bit of a mess. I just want to thank everyone again. If anyone wants to visit me in the Rainbow Room, I basically live there. Maybe I could lug my mattress there like I did with Calvert too. I'm always willing to help or point in the right direction. And remember, we got that 95%. As my mom said, that's still a damn A. This is Alex, signing off.