Staff at Kansas City college say dating policy requires they out themselves

Staff at Metropolitan Community College have had enough of a non-fraternization policy they believe could unintentionally force LGBTQ employees who are not public about their orientation to disclose it to supervisors.

Daniel Wright, an instructor at MCC Maple Woods said in an email that “some have referred to it as an ‘outing’ policy.”

The policy in question requires college employees to disclose romantic, sexual or dating relationships that involve students to their supervisor and human resources.

Protecting students from abuse of power and exploitation is an issue that should be addressed, said Ashley Cerrentano, a full-time faculty member. Her concern, however, is that the “broad” policy, as she described it, would harm LGBTQ members by demanding they reveal any relationship they may be in with a student.

Based on the policy, a student is any person who is enrolled in a class, even if it is for no credits. At MCC 31% of the students are over the age of 25. In the case that a faculty member — even part time — at one of MCC’s five campuses might be in a relationship with a student on one of its other campuses, they would have to disclose their relationship.

Wright, Cerrentano and other staff at MCC argue that the policy should differentiate power dynamics and when it would be required to disclose relationships.

Other higher education institutions in the area have policies that specify when consensual relationships are prohibited.

The University of Missouri—Kansas City doesn’t allow consensual romantic relationships “when any participant has direct evaluative or supervisory authority over the other(s).” The University of Kansas in Lawrence prohibits relationships where a faculty member has an evaluative role over a student. KU Medical Center’s policy states that employees shouldn’t engage in relationships where they have “evaluative or decision-making authority” over the other person.

Although the Kansas City Kansas Community College does not have a policy that addresses relationships between faculty and students, they state that it is better to avoid them in the faculty handbook.

As a member of the LGBTQ community herself, Cerrentano said she knows how hard coming out can be because not everyone is affirming and accepting. Some of her relationships changed when she came out at the institution, she said.

“I know the consequences of coming out,” Cerrentano said. “And I know we can’t ever force anyone to come out. I waited until I was 35 years old to come out. So to make anyone do it before they’re ready is irresponsible. It should not happen.”

The Human Rights Campaign organization found in a national study that 46% of LGBTQ workers are not public with their orientations at work. The survey showed their top reasons being: the possibility of being stereotyped, making people feel uncomfortable, losing connections with coworkers and people thinking they will be attracted to them because of their orientation.

Wright and a group of faculty were asked to look at updating the college’s non-fraternization policy. The proposed policy specified that only relationships in which there is a direct supervision or influence on the evaluation of a student or staff would have to be disclosed.

The proposed policy would have allowed the Chief Human Resources Officer at the college to grant exceptions, “upon concluding that an otherwise prohibited consensual relationship existed prior to the effective date of this policy, the consensual relationship does not present the likelihood of abuse of power or exploitation by either party or there exists good cause for granting an exception.”

At a meeting late last month the MCC Board of Trustees voted to keep a previous policy that passed in March, wrote Blake Fry, executive director of communications and marketing at MCC, in an email.

The non-fraternization policy approved in March — that applies to MCC Board members, faculty, staff, administrators, officers, contract workers, contractors and vendors — is still problematic, Wright said.

“The old policy is still overly intrusive and broad,” he said. “It forces all relationships, whether there is any potential for exploitation or not into reporting to HR, so it’s just an overly intrusive policy.”

Cerrentano said that having employees disclose their orientation to supervisors is not fair because of the power they hold. The HRC study showed that 1 in 10 LGBTQ employees have heard their supervisors making negative comments about their community, a statistic the organization said has remained since a 2008 study.

“That’s a dangerous practice,” Cerrentano said. “Outing yourself to your supervisor, to someone that’s in a position of authority, can have repercussions for that individual. And that’s not something that we take lightly. We shouldn’t have an outing policy at MCC.”

The college addressed some of the concerns employees had about the policy ahead of the board meeting.

“It is important to note that while the non-fraternization portion of the standards of conduct does require the disclosure of relationships between an employee and student, that disclosure will be confidential,” the statement read. “MCC is committed to creating a culture that respects all students and employees and will ensure this policy (if approved) is put in practice in a manner that is in keeping with that commitment.”

And MCC Chancellor Kimberly Beatty said that they had been taking into account the insight of the MCC community for the policy process.

“As I have said to them several times, my words to them, our policies are intended to be broad in scope, and that the college has a responsibility to develop a procedure that will absolutely address the equity concerns that they have,” Beatty said.

Wright wrote in an email that those who rallied will continue challenging the non-fraternization policy that remains. He and Cerrentano will meet with the Kansas City LGBTQ+ Commission on Wednesday, July 7, and hope to get their guidance on the issue.

“We want a non-fraternization policy that protects students and employees by focusing on relationships with a power differential (Faculty and their student, supervisor and their employee.)“ Wright wrote. “Blanket broad policies that apply to everyone blindly are harmful to marginalized populations.”

“We will continue to invite the Board to have a discussion with us about how we can form the best policy that will protect students while not harming other vulnerable populations,” Wright wrote. “We are not giving up on this issue.”