Residence Life at Elon University has issued a statement of apology and will re-examine aspects of their policy following the removal of two posters from senior Taylor Ferguson's room during a tour of Colonnades Oct. 25. Additional diversity training, with the help of SPECTRUM and LGBTQ students will also be incorporated into Residence Life, according to Elaine Turner, director of Residence Life.
One poster, displayed in Ferguson's bathroom, shows two clothed women kissing. A second poster, near her bed, shows two shirtless women without any frontal nudity.
Ferguson, a resident assistant in the Colonnades neighborhood who identifies as bisexual, volunteered to leave her first-floor room open for a tour by faculty and staff.
Following the removal of the posters 15 minutes before the start of the tour, Ferguson said she understood that the staff did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable but she was most concerned with the lack of explanation from Residence Life staff.
"When I talked to Dawn Morgan (assistant director of Residence Life for Colonnades) that morning, I told her I wasn't personally offended but I do feel it's hypocritical," Ferguson said in a previous interview. "I have my bed illegally risen and a stolen Elon football sign hanging and no one said anything about those two things. I felt as though the things they had grounds to say something about, they didn't."
Elaine Turner, director of Residence Life and one of three staff members directly involved in the removal of the posters, submitted the statement to The Pendulum as well as SPECTRUM, Elon's queer-straight alliance.
"While the request was intended to prevent visitors from feeling uncomfortable with the explicit photos and content of the posters, we did not fully consider her right of expression in her own room," the statement reads. "This was a mistake and I am sorry that we put the student in the position of having to remove the posters."
No apology or explanation has been given directly to Ferguson, who said Turner has yet to respond to her requests for a meeting.
According to Turner, Residence Life will make an ongoing effort to collaborate with Spectrum and is in the process of having discussions about the criteria for the removal of posters from students' rooms.
"As much as this situation is a good example of diversity and how Elon can improve their approaches, this is not the only occurrence," Ferguson said. "I believe this situation should be used to continually address diversity in all of its forms and how we can work as a population and an institution to embrace diversity into our lives rather than shy away due to personaldiscomforts and misunderstandings."
On Nov. 11, a meeting was held between representatives from Residence Life, Kirstin Ringelberg, director of the newly created LGBTQ Office and students from SPECTRUM.
According to Ringelberg, the meeting was positive and served as clarification on how the situation looked from different perspectives. Another meeting is scheduled for this week to discuss more collaborations between Residence Life and the LGBTQ community at Elon.
"I don't think Ms. Turner intentionally expressed a specifically homophobic attitude toward the student in question," Ringelberg said. "And I got the sense she would be more aware in the future of how such an attitude might be inferred from what did happen."
The situation served as a reminder that there are differing opinions regarding the appropriateness of an image, said Ringelberg, professor of art history.
"These posters are widely available, and we can have lots of great conversations about what they signify visually and how they signify meaning differently in different viewing contexts," she said. "Put these same posters up in a male student's room, and that context shifts our interpretation of the image. Put them in a professor's office – shift again."
But the discussions will not end there, according to Troy Martin, assistant director of academic advising, who was involved in the first meeting. An ongoing dialogue will continue between Residence Life and the LGBTQ community at the university to determine specific guidelines for making such decisions in the future.
According to Ferguson, setting a precedent for the future is an important part of the process.
"The situation calls for Residence Life to determine what they accept and do not accept as far as student expression when their rooms will be showed publicly for tours," she said. "I hope how this situation was handled is not how it is handled in the future."
Senior Ali Garced, who helped bring the situation to the attention of others at Elon, said the university should put more emphasis on combining what is learned both inside and outside of the classroom and how they complement one another.
"Not only will students be able to express themselves in front of faculty, but faculty will be able to express themselves in front of students," Garced said. "Students are not the only ones learning on college campuses. Students and faculty at Elon should be learning from each other to make themselves better."
For Ferguson, the true meaning of diversity extends beyond just a question of race.
"People need to have a better understanding of the real world diversity," she said. "I believe it is the university's job to not only prepare its students for work experience but also for personal experience through personal growth."