January 19.2001
The harmony was short-lived, however.
John Goldrick, student services vice presi
dent, met with students Jan. 17. Kruse said
the meeting was a step forward because it
started a dialogue with administrators about
crucial issues: harassment of gays and les
bians, lack of sexual diversity education and
support for gay students, lack of student input
about campus policies and low numbers of
professors of color on campus, among others
concerns.
But the meeting frustrated her. She said
Goldrick continually passed the buck, telling
the four students at the meeting that other
segments of the university, including the stu
dent government body and the professors
themselves, were responsible for making poli
cy changes to address the complaints.
Kruse said the administrators criticized her
for not coming to them directly with her com
plaints and concerns. “I didn’t feel comfortable,”
she said in her defense.
Goldrick and the University of Portland
public relations office did not respond to repeat
ed requests for an interview.
Finliiii i parposi
fter graduating from a Montana high school,
Kruse wanted to leave the state. She started
looking at the Rose City as a possible destina
tion but knew nothing about University of Port
land. She’s not a Catholic and never had heard
of the institution when she accepted a scholar
ship offer from the university.
Within a week, Kruse knew she was in the
wrong place. “I made the biggest mistake of my
life,” she recalled thinking. “1 can’t even
describe what it was like.”
The freshman said she was an outcast from
the beginning; students assumed she was a
lesbian and shunned her. “It was not outright
(discrimination), but you know when you’re
not welcome," she said.
In October 1998, student Jeff Lee wrote an
editorial in the school’s newspaper, The Beacon,
about the murder of Matthew Shepard and the
issue of homosexuality. “This horrific act can
not be tolerated...it must also be stated that
homosexuality is an immoral lifestyle choice
and should not be accepted as normal,” he
wrote. “Show compassion, help and lead them
away from the abomination of homosexuality.”
A
plained, university personnel told her she need
ed counseling and questioned her “lifestyle
>■ ' ,mi « * ? *
choice” and disparaged her for choosing a
Catholic university, she
said. “Boys will be boys,”
she said a staff member
For the first
told her.
Most officials threw
their hands up in the air
and said they couldn’t do
anything about the situa
passion. I felt
tion. The com plainant
claims
she was denied
like it was m y
when she asked for a sup
purpose o f m y
portive advocate to sit in
on her meetings with uni
versity personnel. Her
parents quickly tried to
find an attorney for their
o f Portland. "
daughter.
After one term at the
— Kari Kruse
university, she packed up
and returned to live with
her parents. One of her
friends told Just Out she
eventually might return to Portland— this
time to attend Portland State University.
Kruse says these stories are not isolated inci
dents. “It’s not about me. It’s about an entire
institution.”
She thinks the university should be taking
After a year and a half of suffering, Kruse responsibility for these issues rather than sit
decided she’d had enough. There was no gay ting back and waiting for students to complain.
and lesbian organization on campus, there was “If you want to make change, you need to
no advocate for sexual minority students, there make it yourself,” Kruse said Goldrick told her.
“But that is not how it works at University of
were few classes where the issue even would be
Portland,” she told Just Out. Students aren’t
addressed, and there was an institutional
atmosphere that said her life was not a empowered at the university, she said.
Kruse will graduate in May with a degree in
“Catholic value.”
Thinking about transferring to another uni social work. She said the group she founded has
versity, despite the financial advantage of being potential leaders who will remain. She hopes
at University of Portland, Kruse suddenly had the work FUEL has done will continue.
Although passionate about the work, more
the idea to start FUEL. The name is from a
than two years of being at odds with her univer
favorite lyric by folk singer Ani Difranco:
sity has worn her down a bit. Still, she tries to
“There’s a fire just waiting to fuel.”
Kruse adopted that name for her brainchild see the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
“My role in this is to set a spark, raise
and announced in a class that she was starting
awareness,”
Kruse said. “The demonstration
the group. To her amazement, by day’s end she
had 45 students’ signatures showing interest in did that.” J fT l
getting involved.
J onathan K ipp is a Just Out staff
“For the first time in life, I found my pas
reporter who can be reached at
sion,” Kruse said. “I felt like it was my purpose of
jkipp@teleport.com.
my being at University of Portland.”
M m * wart ti ki in n
T
hese days, Kruse feels respected on cam
pus. After three years of activism, her
career ambitions have shifted from psychology
to politics.
Students are more organized at University
of Portland and care more about the same
things she cares about. Kruse said she’s
learned that when students get together they
have a voice.
But things at the university have not changed
enough— not nearly enough. Kruse said she can
count the number of out gay students on one
hand. Even after two years, most of the members
of FUEL are heterosexual.
And harassment of gays con
tinues in the campus dorms.
A university freshman reported
I lu* Radical
to Just Out that a male student
Cheerleaders
repeatedly harassed her in her
entertain the
dorm because of her perceived les
crowd assembled
bianism. Homophobic epithets
at University
regularly were heard in the hall
of Portland
ways of the dormitories. At one
point a “No on 9” sign on her
dorm room door was defaced—
i
“Yes! Fucking Fags,” someone
wrote on it.
When the young woman com
Í3
S tudent
D emands
fob A ction
F
or immediate attention:
1. Zero tolerance: Residence Life should
implement a zero-tolerance policy regarding
oppressive actions and harassing language.
2. Diverse classes: Offer courses that give us
education on diverse real-world issues like
women’s and multicultural issues.
3. Sexual diversity education: Sexual diver
sity education should be made available for dor
mitory resident assistants and their halls.
4. L G B T advocate: This underrepresented
population needs a liaison in Residence Life.
5.
Club status: Form a student committee
that will participate with the administration in
deciding which groups will receive club status.
L
ong-term goals:
6.
Diversity in the teaching body: With
in the next five years, University of Portland
needs to hire at least five professors of color to
enrich student education.
7.
Cultural center: Devote some of the
annual alumni funds toward building a multi
cultural center on university grounds in order to
continue the commitment to diversity aware
ness and education.
8.
Visual arts: Art programs are necessary in
a school dominated by engineering and busi
ness. Expression and creation are important
parts of a well-rounded education.
9.
Public safety: Conduct open forums with
Public Safety to discuss ways it can serve the
university community and its surrounding
neighborhoods better.
10.
Day care: There is no availability for
child care for students at the university. This
detracts from the university community because
it eliminates parents with young children from
the possibility of attending.