They now work as the program
specialist
for
education
and
training at the Spectrum Center.
Ryan first realized they were
non-binary after encountering
uncomfortable situations in the
women’s bathrooms on campus.
“When I got on campus, I
was having a really hard time
using the restrooms, because I
kept using these (the women’s)
restrooms because I thought that
was where I was supposed to go,”
Ryan said. “And legally, that’s
accurate, but then everyone kept
getting upset that I was using
them, so I kept running into really
uncomfortable situations that I
was struggling with.”
After disclosing their problems
with using the bathroom to a few
people, Ryan was directed to the
Spectrum Center. There, they
talked to Director Will Sherry
about where to find gender-
inclusive restrooms on campus.
Sherry also introduced them to
a packet of vocabulary terms for
the LGBTQ+ community, most
of which Ryan had never heard
before.
“I knew a handful of them,”
Ryan said. “Ninety percent of
what was listed, it was my first
time seeing them. That was
really influential. It was kind of
a catalyst for me to go down the
rabbit hole of the internet and just
learn more about the LGBTQ+
community and identity terms,
and get into this understanding
of gender as a spectrum and not
just two different points. And
then really start reflecting on
what that meant for how I saw
myself and getting language for
the first time to really describe my
relationship to my body and to my
gender, and what that meant as a
student-athlete, as someone who’s
a swimmer.”
Swimming is not the easiest
sport to participate in for a
person coming out as non-binary,
according to Ryan and their
teammates on the swim team. The
athletic clothing and emphasis on
gender distinction can make it
arduous for athletes who do not
identify with the gender binary.
“We show up pretty much
in underwear and are asked to
train and compete day after day,”
Ryan said. “And that’s really
uncomfortable sometimes.”
This struggle with gender
identity led Ryan to struggle with
depression.
“I
was
at
times
very
disassociated from everything
that was going on,” Ryan said. “It
felt like I would be going through
the
motions,
but
not
really
mentally or emotionally engaged
with my day to day activities. And
that was one of the symptoms
definitely of my depression, that
once I was able to get help and
find resources and try things like
medication, that became much
easier to control. As a swimmer
every day, I would change into a
swimsuit and have to walk around
in a body that felt uncomfortable,
that didn’t feel it was really my
body in a way that I could claim.
Which is just an odd sensation to
live in for an extended period of
time.”
While Ryan came out as gender
non-binary
their
sophomore
year, they didn’t receive top
surgery until after the end of
their swimming career at the
University.
They first attempted to change
their body through other means.
“I tried a lot of different things
to change my body,” Ryan said.
“I was an athlete, so I trained
harder, I tried different nutrition
plans and I tried to change my
muscle mass, and really see if
that was it, if it was something
I could change in that way. But
really, I was very uncomfortable
about my chest and the way that
it looked, especially in a swimsuit,
and I kept having to see that day
after day after day. And so that
contributed to my decision to go
through with top surgery, but
only after my swimming career
was done.”
Ultimately,
though,
Ryan
decided to wait to pursue top
surgery because they were unsure
of how it would affect their
swimming scholarship or position
on the team.
“I felt that in order to maintain
my eligibility and consistency
in performance and maintain
that scholarship and the ability
to attend this institution, that I
needed to not interrupt it with any
kind of major surgery, especially
if that surgery was elected,”
Ryan said. “And so that was one
of the primary factors in waiting
until the end of my competitive
swimming career… just kind of
not wanting to jeopardize that.”
Ryan said they considered
switching to the men’s team or
quitting swimming altogether at
the end of each year. However,
they said there was no alternative
that
seemed
appropriate,
an
obvious conundrum for athletes
who identify outside the gender
binary in a binary sport.
“I thought about what the
options were quite a lot, especially
at the end of each year,” Ryan
said. “But ultimately, I chose not
to take any action to change my
position, because there wasn’t
an alternative that worked better
for me. And there wasn’t an
alternative that allowed me to
affirm or support my gender that
I could continue training in the
same way with the same support
structure, and I was comfortable
in the routine of being part of the
women’s team. It wasn’t quite
right, it didn’t fit, but there was
comfort in the fact that it was a
habit.”
While
Ryan’s
non-binary
identity can sometimes serve
as a cause for confusion in a
binary sport, Ryan said their
gender assignment at birth has
its privileges, as the NCAA does
not prohibit participants who are
designated female at birth from
competing in men’s divisions,
whereas it does prohibit male-
born participants from competing
in women’s divisions.
“There’s definitely a privilege of
people who are assigned female at
birth competing in men’s division.
There are far fewer restrictions
than of people who are assigned
men
at
birth
competing
in
women’s,” Ryan said. “So the
barriers to me are fewer than they
could have been.”
While Ryan said they struggled
with gender identity during their
years on the swim team, they
also felt the camaraderie and
success they experienced on the
team illustrate how good and bad
things can occur simultaneously.
“Other times, being part of
the team was really amazing,”
Ryan said. “It was exciting and
exhilarating. We accomplished
some
amazing
things
as
a
group, which was something I
wouldn’t have be able to say as an
individual, so that was being part
of a team that was unique and
valuable in my experience.””
When Ryan came out, they
wrote an article in a swimming
publication about being non-
binary and decided to come out
to their team by alerting them of
the article before it published.
While Ryan said it may have been
unconventional,
the
decision
allowed them to come out to
multiple people at once.
Ryan
called
the
team’s
reaction “entirely positive,” even
though the team might not have
been familiar with non-binary
identities or the gender spectrum.
“I was terrified,” Ryan said.
“I was mostly terrified, because
I had no idea what people’s
reactions would be and that
unknown, that question mark,
was really unnerving. Nobody’s
reaction was bad. I had an entirely
positive reaction to my coming
out to the swim team, to everyone
I talked to. Definitely a lack of
knowledge, which made perfect
sense to me, because I had only
recently acquired this vocabulary
to talk about my own identity,
so I didn’t have an expectation
that other people knew, but I was
incredibly nervous.”
While Ryan said the team’s
reaction was positive, they did
encounter obstacles with their
decision to use they, them and
their pronouns, which often felt
exhausting.
“It was hard to have people try
and use my pronouns,” Ryan said.
“I would say that was one of the
biggest barriers, one of the biggest
challenges, that I encountered
during my time as a swimmer. It
depended on the day. Some days I
completely understood why it was
happening and that people were
still practicing and getting used
to it, and other days I was kind of
just over it. I was done with the
understanding perspective and
I was in my own frustration. It
had been enough time that I feel
like people should be able to use
my pronouns. And I wanted to be
affirmed in that.”
LSA
sophomore
Claire
Maiocco,
Ryan’s
former
swimming
teammate
at
the
University,
confirmed
that
teammates struggled to use Ryan’s
pronouns,
despite
respecting
Ryan and their abilities.
“Even to this day, I know
there’ll be people like, ‘Oh how’s
G doing? Is she doing well?’ and
I’ll be like, ‘No.’ Or, ‘Yes, they
are doing well,’” Maiocco said.
“It’s not that people didn’t really
accept them, because they were a
big part of the team — especially
in the distance crew, they’re very
well-respected on the team — but
I don’t really think people could
understand the same struggles
that they had to go through every
day, whether it be having to go
into a locker room with the label
‘women’s’ on it, because that’s not
who they are, or still constantly
getting misgendered every day,
even if somebody didn’t mean
harm by it.”
Another
teammate,
LSA
sophomore Sierra Schmidt, said
Ryan’s positive attitude sometimes
concealed the difficulties they had
to undergo.
“G is such a strong person,”
Schmidt said. “G always helped
everyone. And they still do to this
day. And I think because of that,
there were a lot of times that I
didn’t even know when they were
struggling, because they were
such a strong person that you
could always depend on and go
to.”
In the end, Ryan said they
prioritized
certain
things
in
the women’s team, such as the
camaraderie and success, that
contributed to their happiness.
“I was part of a team that was
successful,” Ryan said. “I was part
of a distance swim group that had
real camaraderie, and I would like
to maintain that through the end
of my swimming career because
these were things that helped
me to perform and compete and
feel happy as a swimmer. So I
prioritized those as I completed
my swimming career.”
Cook
said
while
there
are
currently
around
300
declared history majors at the
University, compared to 1,390
computer science majors, there
are more than 5,000 students
enrolled in history courses
this semester. This number,
he said, has not changed since
the 1990s even though the
number of history majors has
been cut in half. To combat
this problem and raise the
number of students interested
in the history major, Cook
said the department worked
to improve its public relations
and increase its social media
presence.
“The
decline
in
majors
around the country started
around 2010, in the wake of the
global recession,” Cook wrote
in an email interview. “In UM
History, we still teach more
than 5,000 students every year
and have growing numbers of
minors. But it’s true that our
majors are down over the past
decade—just like every other
history
department
in
our
conference. Our first response
was to focus on messaging
with our students— and their
parents and friends— to help
them understand that majoring
in history at UM was not a bad
decision at all in relation to
the post-grad job market—the
tracking data is very clear
about that.”
In
2017,
the
department
also developed a HistoryLab
program
that
stresses
collaboration
and
project-
based learning. In the labs, a
team of undergraduates works
closely with a faculty member
to develop a project relating to
modern, real-life issues. Since
the program began, there have
been five history labs offered
in subjects like immigration
law, and race and the criminal
justice system.
“The larger goal is to arm
our majors with impressive
dossiers that go well beyond
the
older
abstractions
of
‘primary research’ and ‘critical
thinking,’” Cook wrote. “We
are still really good at teaching
those traditional skills, but
they are hardly the limit of
what we do.”
Although the number of
students declaring a history
major
has
declined
since
2000, Cook and Anne Berg,
history lecturer and faculty
adviser for the Undergraduate
History Club, stressed that
public interest in the study of
history has actually increased
in recent years. Berg said
current politics and changes to
the way history is taught have
made people more inclined
to educate themselves about
where their situation stems
from.
“To me, right now history is
really really crucial because
these sorts of watered-down,
simplistic references to any
given figure in the past in
any
development
are
just
doing more harm than good,”
Berg wrote. “To me, it seems
that there is a real interest
in the general public of how
we got to where we are, and
where certain references and
rhetorical moves and legal
precedents come from.”
Berg said the dwindling
numbers of history majors do
not reflect a lack of interest
in the field, but are instead
products of poor marketing.
“History has a problem— we
don’t tend to market ourselves
very well,” Berg wrote. “Most
people think of history as
stuffy old white guys. It’s an
important image problem that
the historical profession has,
and you can see this across the
United States with the decline
in history majors and history
students, and the decline in the
humanities in general.”
Schmidt’s
study
found
that drops in history majors
were most significant among
Asian-American
students
and at private universities,
where tuition averages around
$43,000 per year. Even so, both
public and private universities
have
suffered
decreasing
numbers of history majors.
Cook
pointed
to
the
University
of
Wisconsin-
Stevens Point, where a proposal
put
forth
by
the
school’s
chancellor in November 2018
suggested
the
elimination
of the history major due a
decrease in enrollment of more
than 50 percent, as an example
of the problematic decrease of
history education at regional
universities. At the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point,
around 46 percent of those
enrolled are first-generation
college students and many
come
from
low-income
backgrounds.
Though
Cook
said
the
University
does
not
face
the same challenges as the
University
of
Wisconsin-
Stevens Point, he described
how the history department
at the University is trying
to appeal to students of all
socioeconomic,
racial
and
ethnic backgrounds.
“At
places
like
Yale
or
Princeton,
the
number
of
history
majors
are
very
strong,”
Cook
wrote.
“But
what that suggests to us—
and those who track this
sort of data— is that students
who
come
from
affluent
backgrounds don’t worry quite
as much about future financial
pressures as people going to,
say, Wisconsin-Steven’s Point
(sic). Moving forward, our goal
is to ensure that traditional
liberal arts majors like history
or English or philosophy don’t
become boutiquey majors that
only affluent kids at places like
Yale can feel confident about
choosing.”
However,
interest
in
graduate-level history degrees
and doctoral programs has
remained
relatively
steady
despite
decreased
declared
undergraduate history majors,
Rackham
student
Zach
Kopin said. Kopin, who leads
the
Graduate
Organization
of
Students
in
History,
highlighted how the doctoral
program
sometimes
has
too large of a cohort due to
over-enrollment of accepted
graduate students.
“We, over time, have to
guess if we make a certain
number of offers we’re going
to get a certain number of
acceptances,”
Kopin
said.
“Some years that backfires.
In 2009-2010, so many people
accepted that there was not a
cohort the next year.”
Kopin
said
the
history
department’s strength comes
from its dedication to teaching
communication and writing
skills rather than a collection
of facts.
“The value for us in history
is that, I mean, it’s the cliché
thing that you get to learn from
the past, but we also teach
transferable
skills,”
Kopin
said. “Largely what we teach
is
actually
communication.
It’s not historical fact — we
hope
you
remember
the
historical fact, but what we
largely teach is different ways
of communicating, whether it
be oral presentation, putting
together a slideshow or writing
an essay, these are all different
transferable skill sets that
will affect you whether you go
into public communications or
whether you go into finance or
you become a teacher.”
Echoing
Kopin’s
point,
Cook explained the belief that
history majors have limited
employment
opportunities
or struggle to find a job after
graduation is false, especially
since the department stresses
the importance of written and
oral communication skills.
“The data is pretty clear —
U-M LSA majors’ placement
rate is about 96 percent, and
Engineering, which you could
argue is the most practical
major of all, is 97 percent,”
Cook wrote. “So it’s basically
identical between our number
one
ranked
engineering
department and LSA majors
like history. So a lot of this is
a kind of messaging issue and
getting students to understand
and parents to understand
that they’re not creating a
kind of dangerous (outcome)
for themselves if they choose
to major in a liberal arts
discipline like history.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 — 3
HISTORY
From Page 1
SWIMMING
From Page 1
Harper: I’m disappointed for
the fraternities that decided to
disaffiliate. I think it was unwise. I
think that’s pretty shameful. I can’t
imagine a national organization
knowing
that
the
fraternities
started on college campuses, have
values related to college campuses
and then would be encouraging
students to disaffiliate from their
University.
I think it’s misguided and it puts
our students in harm’s way because
one of the things that happens is
in the disaffiliated groups, (there)
is more risky behaviors. In the
affiliated groups, they have the
support of the University. They’ve
got
resources
related
to
the
University. They are programming
and doing mental health safety, all
those kinds of issues that ensure
when students are having fun and
are together, they are safer. And so I
worry about that for the disaffiliated
groups, I worry about an external
organization that’s not connected
to the University, actually doesn’t
understand
the
policies
and
procedures of the University, trying
to provide guidance and support.
Not wise on so many levels, and I’m
concerned from a health and safety
perspective also. And proud of the
ones that remained affiliated with
the University. They are important.
I think fraternities and sororities
add value to the University and to
the undergraduate experience. But
we all know they come with some
challenges. The more professional
development, leadership training,
those kinds of resources that we
(the University) can provide, the
better it is. … I’m hoping some of
those fraternities will decide to
re-affiliate with the University.
The relationship, the response,
what I believe is the focus and
commitment of students in those
organizations (IFC and AAIC) and
their nationals, is very different.
TMD: After a free speech
watchdog group Speech First filed
a lawsuit against the University’s
use of the Bias Response Team last
May, the University has restricted
residential advisors and diversity
peer educators from removing
speech
on
student
doors
—
including offensive language. Why
was this specific decision made
and how does the University plan
to address potential issues with
student climate in the dorms?
Harper: So let me say two
things. One, we don’t suppress
nor ignore speech … Secondly, we
actually didn’t change the policy.
One of the things that happens
in a resident hall is that there is
personal space, which might be
space on your door (whiteboards)
… there’s sort of community space
where anybody can put something
up or take it down, and then there’s
space bulletin boards that the staff
actually controls. And so what we
tried to do last summer and what we
continue to do is actually clarify the
policy to make sure that our staff
understood the difference between
personal space — you can write
whatever you want there — public
space, and then the space they’re
controlling.
When harm is being done or
offensive speech occurs in the
resident hall or anywhere, our
goal is to respond and to have
conversations about it and to invite
the conversations. Because that’s
what you do at an educational
institution. You debate, you talk
back and forth, we say, ‘What do
you mean?’, ‘Did you intend?’ and
so conversations like that happen
all the time in housing and in
classrooms and other places where
there are students. … We have a
group that responds to issue of
climate. And so they are a response
team, and so of course they are
both concerned about the student
who might have written or said
something that was experienced
as harmful, and the student who
is experiencing it. So we try to
actually have a conversation, or
relationship or intervention with
both sets of students. For us, that’s
being an educational institution
… we’re an educational institution
where members of our community
interact, and so we are always
engaged in that conversation. But
the intent really was to clarify to
make sure the staff understood
what the expectations were, not a
change in policy.
TMD: Recently, the University
announced a revision to the student
sexual misconduct policy, wherein
students take part in an in-person
meeting between the accuser, the
accused and any witnesses involved.
Why did the University amend this
policy? How does it aim to improve
the general sexual misconduct
policy? How does it respond to
allegations that the revision benefits
financially stable students who have
the means to hire counsel?
Harper: We changed our policy
and went to an interim policy on
direction of a Sixth Circuit Court.
So, this wasn’t a decision on the
part of the University to even
make it more challenging or to
re-traumatize or any of the issues
that are being talked about in the
community. And we share those
concerns, actually appealed, tried
to help the court understand why
this wasn’t in the best interest of our
students. But in the end, we were
told we needed to change our policy.
So, we created an interim policy and
we started working with student
groups and others to figure out who
ought to be doing the hearings, how
do we minimize the negative impact
on the students participating.
Right now, we are looking at
having some hearing officers there
who will actually help facilitate
the discussion and manage the
environment and the discussion.
The attorneys won’t be asking the
questions, but they can be there —
both parties can have an advocate
with them to help them. Depending
on
what
the
student
needs,
depending on what the complainant
needs, they might be in the room,
they might be in another setting,
so we’re going to try to, on a case by
case basis, figure out what’s best in
that environment for students. The
other thing we are doing, because
some students might decide, ‘You
know what, I am not doing this,’
we are also increasing and making
sure that students understand that
they can engage in an alternative
resolution process, which would
not have a hearing component. Both
students have to agree, the idea is
to work through what is going on
with the students, and to engage in
a restorative resolution, which does
not include the hearing.
HARPER
From Page 1
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com