We do not actively seek out LGBTQ+ prospective students, but we have a very active Pride Law student group. They work with admissions to welcome all admitted students, including those who self-identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, to our law school.
All student organizations are invited to submit a flyer for the orientation packet and encouraged to plan informal activities during or shortly after the orientation period. Our Pride Law group consistently does so. We also typically include a live orientation component about student organizations in which Pride Law is represented. There is a continually updated roster of student organizations available to all students, which includes information on organizational mission and becoming involved. We also distribute a daily announcement email (Day-At-A-Glance) and a weekly events/announcements email (The Weekly Bulletin) noting all activities for student groups.
When applicants sign up for the Credential Assembly Service, they have the option of identifying as LGBTQ+. We don’t ask a specific question on our application.
We allow applicants to change their names on their application if they would like to. Using a name that is not tied to their social security number can affect ability to receive financial aid. However, we allow students during the application process to change their name.
Additionally, in the University’s campus management system, students are permitted to submit a preferred name that will appear instead of their legal name within University-related systems and documents. Students may also designate their preferred pronouns within University systems. See https://diversity.arizona.edu/pronouns for the University of Arizona policy on pronoun usage.
We actively seek to build the most diverse pool of applicants we can for every faculty position, including LGBTQ+ individuals. We have an Inclusion Advisor at the Law College who provides advice and input on our hiring and recruitment processes. All of our positions are posted on the University’s Human Resources web site which automatically cross posts on many affinity group job sites.
Additionally, the University’s Strategic Priorities Faculty Initiative (SPFI) provides temporary University financial support to academic departments enabling them to hire additional full-time, tenure-track faculty or continuing-eligible academic professionals who will enhance UA’s distinctive strengths in advancing Inclusive Excellence via equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion as outlined in the University of Arizona’s Purpose and Values. The SPFI program provides funding to hire faculty who were not recruited through a search with designated funding. Candidates will be considered whose work will
1. foster new and creative ways of involving our diverse student body in an accessible and engaging educational experience that is aimed at producing highly capable graduates who will meet our state’s critical workforce needs,
2. develop new approaches to discoveries and cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, scholarship or creative work that benefits our diverse communities and addresses complex global problems, and
3. expand collaborations with community and business partnerships, including those involving traditionally underserved groups.
We have an additional faculty member joining us in May 2022 who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The University of Arizona has worked to achieve parity between benefits for married couples and for domestic partners. There is no distinction between same-sex or opposite-sex relationships in any of our policies.
• The State of Arizona administers health benefits for University of Arizona employees. Same-sex and opposite-sex spouses and their children are eligible dependents under these plans. Domestic partners are not eligible dependents under these plans.
• With respect to health coverage for domestic partners, the University of Arizona administers medical, dental and vision plans separate from the State of Arizona for employees with same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners and their children. Coverage is designed to mirror what is available under the State of Arizona plans.
• Fertility treatment is not a covered benefit under the medical plans available to employees.
• Family and Medical Leave is granted to any qualifying employee who needs time off for themselves or to care for a member of his/her established household in compliance with federal law. Leaves of absence may also be available.
• Twelve weeks of paid leave is provided to new biological or adoptive mothers and fathers, foster parents (with the goal of adoption), and legal guardians. The benefit is not based on sexual orientation or the relationship status of the mother/father.
• Under the medical plans administered by the State of Arizona (available to employees, spouses and dependent children), counseling and hormone therapy are covered transition-related benefits, but gender reassignment surgery is not covered. Under the medical plan administered by the University of Arizona (available to employees and their domestic partners and children), all transition-related care is covered, including gender reassignment surgery.
Under the medical plans administered by the State of Arizona (available to employees, spouses and dependent children), counseling and hormone therapy are covered transition-related benefits, but gender reassignment surgery is not covered. Under the medical plan administered by the University of Arizona (available to employees and their domestic partners and children), all transition-related care is covered, including gender reassignment surgery.
Students may enroll in student health insurance provided by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Coverage for dependents is not available. Comprehensive fertility treatment is not a covered benefit.
Students may enroll in student health insurance provided by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Coverage for dependents is not available. Since 2012, SHIP has offered a “Transgender Benefit” to SHIP plan enrollees. The ABOR SHIP’s “Transgender Benefit” affords students critical access to medically necessary, gender-confirming health care.
The University provides numerous health related resources for LGBTQ+ patients. See https://health.arizona.edu/lgbtq-health Campus Health personnel have been Safe Zone trained. All patients at Campus Health have the option to include their chosen or preferred name on their medical record and the option to designate their gender identity and pronouns on both health history and registration forms. Campus Health encourages all patients to share their pronouns with their staff during the patient’s visit. Campus Health has all gender restroom facilities located inside the clinics on the 1st and 2nd floors.
Mental Health services through Counseling and Psych Services (“CAPS”), include individual, couples and group counseling, referrals to LGBTQ+ community providers, LGBTQ+ and Trans support groups, letters supporting surgical transition, psychiatric treatment, outreach and consultation to the university community, and to parents of UA students. The University recently added an additional location for CAPS, which is less than half a mile from the College of Law.
In addition, for the past three semesters the College of Law has supplemented existing counseling services provided by the University by providing no-cost, short term counseling for our students.
Students may enroll in student health insurance provided by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Coverage for dependents is not available. Since 2012, SHIP has offered a “Transgender Benefit” to SHIP plan enrollees. The ABOR SHIP’s “Transgender Benefit” affords students critical access to medically necessary, gender-confirming health care. This access to care is a crucial element to the health, academic success and retention of transgender-identified students.
Medical services at Campus Health include consultation, initiation and continuation of hormonal treatment, letters of support for name and gender marker change, referral for surgical transition, and general wellness visits including at-birth bodies, and bodies in any stage of transition. There are medical providers at Campus Health that specialize in trans services.
Speech-feminization treatment is offered through the UA Speech and Hearing Clinic Services include extensive pre- and post-treatment evaluation (including body language, gestures, intonation patterns, posture, proxemics, as well as vocal pitch and tone).
The law college operates out of five buildings, and of those five, four provide gender-neutral restrooms.
In three of the five law buildings (428, 471A, 571), the all-gender restrooms are identified with signage displaying male and female pictograms. We are in the process of replacing the binary pictograms with signage that says “all-gender.” We are also in the process of relabeling building maps to explicitly mark the all-gender restrooms.
• Law Annex 1 (571) has two all-gender restrooms. One is accessible for people with disabilities.
• Law Annex 2 (471A) has one all-gender restroom. It is not accessible for people with disabilities.
• Law Annex 3 (428) has two all-gender restrooms. One is accessible for people with disabilities.
In the fourth building (176) the signage for the two restrooms has been updated to reflect that they are All-Gender Restrooms. We are updating internal maps and online resources to reflect that they are gender neutral; they are already identified as such on UA online resources. They are both accessible for people with disabilities.
The fifth building (177), is furnished with traditional, gender-segregated restrooms on each of its three floors.
In summary, out of five buildings we offer 7 all-gender restrooms, 4 of which are accessible for people with disabilities.
Arizona Law recently hired a new full-time faculty member who will begin teaching in Fall 2022. One of his regular courses, which will be running in Fall 2022, will be a course specifically on LGBTQ+ issues. The working course title is Law & Sexuality.
We have a class called Regulation of the Modern Family, of which LGBTQ+ topics are discussed a part of many modules. Approximately 10%.
The traditional Family Law course includes LGBTQ+ case law and a lot of intersectionality. Approximately 10-15%.
Employment Law covers briefly LGBTQ+ topics on gender discrimination and benefits issues. Approximately 5%.
Employment Discrimination includes LGBTQ+ topics on gender discrimination in the workplace. Approximately 10-15%.
Bioethics covers LGBT issues in some ways, through discrimination in health care and various reproductive issues. Approximately 10%.
For at least the last 16 years, Pride Law has a been an active student organization providing social support to students, advocates for student interests, conducts programming for the student body, and engages the community at large.
Pride Law’s mission statement for 2021-22:
Pride Law advocates for and supports LGBTQ+ law students and individuals at the University of Arizona and in the broader Tucson area.
In Fall 2021, Pride Law welcomed students during new student orientation (flyer, presentation and breakout room), held a “welcome meeting” in August, and held regular meetings throughout the year.
Pride Law typically: conducts one or more Gender Marker Name Change Clinics (January 2022); requested training in the classroom for faculty and staff in consultation with LGBTQ faculty advisor (March 2022); and conducts club fundraising/club visibility activities.
Pride Law also is represented on the Diversity Committee, a standing committee in the college’s structure. Pride Law can request funds from the Diversity Committee for programming, or can suggest college-wide and community programming.
Student organizations do not receive annual allotments from the administration. Instead, student groups may request College of Law funds throughout the year from the Dean’s office or the College’s Diversity Committee. There are wide-ranging funding requests, which may include: speakers; training; workshops; social activities; events involving alumni; student travel; affiliation/chapter fees and memberships, and other ideas brought forward by student groups. In addition, the University of Arizona typically makes project-specific funds available to student groups via the Graduate and Professional Student Council and various departments.
The Dean’s Office provides funds to offset travel costs for students when requested by a student with a demonstrated, specific professional need or interest. In recent years, we funded the registration cost for student attendance at Lavender Law.
The Career Development Office has limited funding available for students seeking public interest careers, which encompasses LGBTQ students.
The University of Arizona’s Graduate and Professional School Council (GPSC) funds individual student travel on a grant basis, with solicitations each semester. These funds may be used for travel to leadership, association conferences; academic project development; thesis development and research and other networking/learning.
https://policy.arizona.edu/human-resources/nondiscrimination-and-anti-harassment-policyhttps://equity.arizona.edu/report-concernhttps://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/student-rights-responsibilities/first-amendment-report-concern
Required every two years. https://compliance.arizona.edu/training
Yes, optional for all students
The Law College holds training focused on LGBTQ+ topics annually. In previous years, we have conducted Safe Zone training. Safe Zone is a campus-wide training program committed to making The University of Arizona a safer, more welcoming, and inclusive environment for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community. The intention of the program is to shift campus climate through education. All workshops are free and open to the campus community. Any student, staff, or faculty member is welcome and all are strongly encouraged to participate. An individual’s participation in Safe Zone often sends a strong message to campus community members that they are an identifiable source of support and nurturance for LGBTQ+ students, staff, and faculty on our campus.
This year, we will be holding two trainings in focused on helping our LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff feel more welcome in our law school community. These trainings will be conducted by M. Dru Levasseur, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Foundation, at the request of our LGBTQ+ student body. The first training on March 1 is targeted at all law school employees, and the second on March 2 is intended specifically for faculty (all who teach classes are welcome to attend).
The Law College’s Law Library maintains the Antiracist & Social Justice Resources Guide and the Antiracist and Social Justice Collection. The Guide and Collection are intended to provide the Law Library Community access to resources that speak to the issues and experiences of underrepresented and marginalized communities. The sections include:
Arizona Law – Which includes Statements against Racism from the College of Law Student Groups Collection and selections of academic scholarship written by the College of Law faculty.
Events Blog – Created to promote upcoming local and national virtual events on such topics as diversity, racism, and social justice to further the discussion taking place in our Arizona Law community.
Reading Group – A faculty led, student driven group that has formed around topics including environmental justice, redlining/restrictive covenants, and education. This group initially started as a college-wide response to racial injustice and evolved into further supporting the Arizona Law Black Law Students Association yearlong speaker series titled “Racial Justice in the Law: Understanding the Path & Preparing for the Future.”
Other sections of the Guide include the following:
Racial Justice and Antiracism
Indigenous Rights and Trial Sovereignty
Women’s Rights
LGBTQIA+2 Rights
Disability Rights
Immigration Rights
Get Involved
The University’s HR department recently acquired and rolled out access to LinkedIn Learning. This platform offers numerous voluntary online trainings covering LGBTQ+ topics such as Succeeding as an LGBTQ Professional and Becoming an Ally to All.
See https://diversity.arizona.edu/pronouns for the University of Arizona policy on pronoun usage.
The Diversity Committee recently recommended giving employees the option to add their pronouns to their office nameplate. This recommendation was spurred by the University’s initiative to allow employees to add their pronouns to the UA phone book. We adopted the Diversity Committee’s recommendation with enthusiasm and worked with Facilities Management on this project in the fall of 2021. Employees who opted in now have their pronouns listed on their office name plate.
Once enrolled, our students experience a tight-knit community. We make a principled effort to offer a supportive environment and create opportunities for students to bond as a community. One of the ways we do this is to take a student-centered approach in creating our curriculum. For example, the College provides small sections in the first year so that every 1L will have one small section in a substantive course. The small sections are generally no larger than 30 students, and they give students an opportunity to get to know each other as well as their professor. In small section courses, first year professors typically invite students to meetings or lunch gatherings outside the classroom and spend time making sure the students know they have a life-long mentor on the faculty.
Moreover, we listen to students and frequently make curricular or administrative decisions based on student input. Students play an important role in the administration of the College. They serve on most key committees and they have a real voice on committees. Students are invited to faculty meetings, and often attend to present their views. Moreover, the Dean and other senior administrators meet bi-weekly with student leaders, and the Dean sponsors numerous informal events to ensure he has direct interaction with the students.
Our students also have a wonderful resource in our Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, who handles all student counseling and accommodation matters. Our Assistant Dean has a PhD in counseling and is consistently named as a favorite administrator by our students.
Our Assistant Dean for Strategic Initiatives works closely with our student organizations, including Pride Law. Student organizations play a critical role in creating a sense of community at the College.
Our Pride Law group has over the last few years been very active within the law school, with frequent events and speakers, and by collaborating with other groups on programming activities. In most (though not all) the group also has a strong affiliation with main campus LGBTQ+ resources, including the Office of LGBTQ Affairs (https://lgbtq.arizona.edu/). The Law College has also advertised Pride Law community events with the AZ LGBT Bar Association. In the Fall of 2020, Pride Law participated with other student affinity groups in a Student Diversity Panel via zoom. Panelists spoke to what law school looks like for students from marginalized identities and issues surrounding diversity or lack of diversity at the College. Attendees were able to submit anonymous questions/comments.
At the request of our Pride Law group, the Law College invited faculty members with LGBTQ+ competency to serve as a resource to our LGBTQ+ students.
The dean sends out a weekly newsletter to thousands of alumni and friends of the college. He has often featured participants in Pride Law’s reoccurring Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic, as well as a Transgender Clothing Swap hosted by Pride Law and the law school’s Justice Advocates Coalition.
The Arizona Law Diversity Committee works with students and employees to plan community-building events, to strengthen cultural understanding and to sustain an environment where ideas can be discussed in a collegial and welcoming way. The Diversity Committee has up to four student members and typically at least six faculty and staff members. Events hosted by the Diversity Committee included the following:
• Trans Queer Pueblo Training Series – An interactive training on anti-racism, gender, and decolonization within legal aid work lead by a local migrant-led grassroots organization. This event was organized by Arizona Law’s Immigration Law Students Association.
The College also regularly hosts events that include diversity-related topics, including the following:
• It’s More than a Pronoun: Transgender Children and the Best-Interest Standard (October 23, 2021). This half-day workshop was designed for lawyers, judges, and evaluators engaging with transgender children involved in divorce and child custody cases. The workshop provided a foundation training on transgender basics and children, as well as more advanced topics including social and medical transitions, gender dysphoria and treatment, parenting plans, and assessing for child endangerment in contested child custody cases. The program included lecture, case studies, and opportunity for discussion.
In terms of student services, Arizona Law’s Career Development Office (“CDO”) advises students to use their preferred name on their resume and cover letter materials regardless of the name on their birth certificate (although applicants should disclose all names by which they have been known on their background check forms). The CDO’s interviewing dress guide also advises students to dress in accordance with their gender identity for job interviews, including mixing traditionally masculine and feminine attire if appropriate. The CDO has also updated the choice of honorifics on its cover letter templates to include “Mx.”
We have alumni who have been or are active in national LGBTQ+ efforts and who support, speak to and counsel students if we ask them to or if students ask. Alumni visiting the college to speak for other purposes frequently meet with Pride Law students as well.
We do annual Safe Zone training and/or other LGBTQ+ focused training. Safe Zone is a campus-wide training program committed to making the University a safer, more welcoming, and inclusive environment for the LGBTQ community.