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utting off her hair was the most
freeing thing Susan Prock ever did
in her life.
A M ulticultural W eb
Trans woman leads sm all-town campus down a more inclusive path
“I’ve always acted the way I’ve
acted," she says. “But it gave me
permission to be more myself.”
Prock, who was working on a master’s degree
in womens studies at Oregon State University,
was divorced and had a daughter. Soon there
after she got married again, and things started to
make sense in her life.
She took a class in women and sexuality and
read Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues. She
identified so strongly with the trans main char
acter, she felt she needed to warn her husband.
“1 said: ‘Gene, this could be bad for you. I
think I’m transgendered,’ ” she says.
His response was simple.
“I’m pretty open,” Gene says. “I asked if she
wanted a divorce, she said no, I said, ‘Then it’s OK
with me.’ ” Then he adds, “One of the reasons I was
attracted to Susan was because of her short hair.”
After graduating, Prock applied for a job as
m ulticultural center coordinator at Linn-
Benton Community College in Albany. W hile
still struggling with her identity, she attended
the first interview in a dress.
Calling herself her own best critic, Prock was
certain she wouldn’t get the job. So when she
was asked back for a second interview, she
decided to do it her way.
As she walked through the door to face the
hiring committee, Prock was prepared for the
looks, stares and questions concerning her suit
and tie. But unbeknownst to her, she was walk
ing into a haven of understanding.
T he small-town com m unity college broad
ly defines culture as a mixture of values, behav
iors and beliefs linking a group of people
by Heather Hybarger
together. T h at
allows the cen
ter to serve not
only ethnic d i
versity but also
sexual m inor-
ities, w om en,
the tim ber in
dustry, different
religions and
n o n tra d itio n a l
students.
Student Life
and Leadership
director Tammi
Paul-Bryant,
w ho was in
charge of the
hiring com m it
tee, says she
Susan Prock promotes dialogue among students at Linn-Benton Com m unity
sensed Prock’s
College in Albany
trepidation.
“W hen she first came it was apparent when
no t part of the criteria,” Paul-Bryant explains.
Prock began her new job in September 2000.
she had to go to meetings she was aware of
people scrutinizing her.”
She soon realized the college was true to its word.
For Prock, th e suit and tie are no t only an
“W hen I got there I was scared, running a
expression of her gender identity but of her
multicultural center, being visibly different," Prock
professionalism, too. This was also som ething
says. “But I received such an outpouring of sup
the com m ittee was willing to understand.
port, it was so awesome. The people on my hiring
“W e were very clear about who and what we committee must have made this pact or something
were looking for, and how Susan dressed was
to look out for me and not leave me hanging.”
T he more Prock realized her identity was a
nonissue, the more comfortable she became
with herself. She began to expand her own con
cepts of multiculturalism as well.
“If you look at oppression as a web, you don’t
add one plus one plus one and get three; they
interlock,” she says. “To me, it makes perfect
sense to have culture as not tied to a person’s
skin color or nationality.”
She has found the students don’t need much
encouragement to get into discussions about some
of the toughest issues facing the world today.
“It’s hard some days to go in there and make
sure there is safety even though there is a
Seventh-day Adventist, a Buddhist, a Christian,
a W iccan, a lesbian who is still in the closet, a
gay man who hates women, a weight-challenged
person and a bald-headed white middle-class
dude,” Prock says. “I have empowered them to
stop someone who is saying something offensive
and bring it to their attention. These people
have some pretty heated discussions, and I have
to figure out when I should intervene and when
I shouldn’t.”
It’s the dialogue that Prock encourages,
because it’s the dialogue that is the most impor
tant factor in reaching a place of understanding.
T he students and staff and faculty who get
involved in the center come away with skills
that can be used across cultures of all types.
“Empathy, sensitivity and understanding are
skills that allow interaction whether you agree
or disagree,” Paul-Bryant says. “We use these
skills so that we can interact with each other in
a respectful way.” J H
H eather H ybarger is no longer a teen-ager, a
student or a slacker but still finds time to lie around
and do nothing. Some things never change.
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