DE PERE (NBC 26) — St. Norbert College (SNC) administration responded Tuesday to criticism regarding gender identity on campus.
Last week, students and staff spoke out at a town hall event, in response to the school aligning with Catholic Church teachings that say gender and sex are inseparable. In the past two months, the school has changed bathroom signs and application forms.
The Rev. Matthew Dougherty told NBC 26 the school remains committed to "radical hospitality."
"The only things that many people will have noticed are maybe a change in a check box on an application, maybe some signage has changed," Dougherty said. "But all support services that we offer students, all students, remains the same."
The central complaint of students at Thursday's town hall was that their concerns, especially those of LGBTQ+ students, are being ignored. Dougherty said there have been plenty of opportunities for students and faculty to engage.
"The program that occurred last Thursday was disappointing to us for its dishonesty about the ways that the administration and the school has responded to both faculty, staff, and students around these issues," said Dougherty, who serves as the special assistant to the president for mission integration, in addition to teaching biology and leading the division of mission and heritage.
Dougherty pointed to office hours with the academic affairs and mission offices, as well as a faculty and staff town hall in September, as chances for the community to engage.
"We felt like we've been very transparent, and we've invited that dialogue, and we've advertised those opportunities in a number of ways," he said.
We also spoke with student government leaders and theology professors again on Tuesday.
They reiterated beliefs that the school has been too vague about what is changing on campus.
Student Government Association vice president Katie Dutton says some members of SGA have attended presidential cabinet meetings and spoken with administrators, seeking more clarity about how the gender policy will be implemented.
"With the gender identity policy, it's been a little bit of a gray area in conversation with them, whether that's from them maybe not knowing the details of how the policy will be put in place, or different things like that," Dutton said. "[...] With this policy, this has been probably the most vague that they've been."
Kayla Clark, another SGA member and an editor at the school newspaper, called into question whether the school needs to align exactly with the teachings of Dignitas Infinita, the Church document that inspired SNC to announce changes to gender policy.
"There's other private Catholic institutions that have not implemented the changes on gender and sex," Clark said.
Dougherty says the teachings of the church are core to the school's identity.
"If we separate sex from gender, it's what the Vatican calls gender theory, and that is something that The Vatican says is an offense to human dignity," Dougherty said. "We stand for human dignity here at St. Norbert College."
A theology professor echoed Clark's sentiment about the school's application of Dignitas Infinita.
"This was the only part of the document that was decided upon to be enforced, so that's thing number one," said Tom Bolin, a professor of theology and religious studies. "[...] Thing number two, I would say, is that most of the Catholic colleges in the country aren't enforcing this particular part of the document in this way."
Bolin says his department wants to continue the conversation about the relationship between gender identity and Catholicism.
Theology faculty say Dougherty was invited to the "Communio Means All" town hall last Thursday, but he declined. Dougherty says he offered a meeting between the faculty and the Norbertines, instead, but the professors opted for a public forum.
"In response to the initial invitation, we had reached out to ask for a dialogue before a public event, and that was declined," he said. "And so that's how that went down."
Queer students told NBC 26 last week they felt the school was now less welcoming than it was when they arrived on campus. Dougherty says that's not the case.
"We offer a lot of opportunities for the LGBTQ community on campus, to find support and to find their voice on campus," he said. "And we are committed to the same way we did it last year."
Dougherty said there's "no plan for further implementation" of the gender identity policy, and that student affairs and campus ministry will offer "continued office hours to invite conversation."
