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 and we allow them to go by whatever name they choose while enrolled in law school, even if that is not their official name in the University’s campus management system.
There is school funding, awarded by the Student Bar Association, to support student-originated activities generally, and this may include travel, conference registration and support for invited speakers. However, in the last 5 years our SBA has not received any such applications from an LGBTQ+ group or for an LGBTQ+ purpose.
We do actively seek to build the most diverse pool of applicants we can for every faculty position, including LGBTQ+ individuals.
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.
- To ensure 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.
- Six weeks of paid leave is provided to new biological or adoptive mothers and fathers. The benefit is not based on sexual orientation or the relationship status of the mother/father.
Students may enroll in student health insurance provided by the Arizona Board of Regents. Coverage for dependents is not available. Comprehensive fertility treatment is not a covered benefit.
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.
The same transition-related benefits are available to students covered under the student health insurance and employees covered under the University of Arizona’s medical plan for employees with domestic partners. Under these two plans, comprehensive transition-related healthcare benefits are available.
Employees covered under the medical plans offered by the State of Arizona do have a difference in coverage in that only counseling and hormone therapy are available while gender reassignment surgery is not. Discussions continue with the State of Arizona to provide comprehensive transition-related care to employees covered under their plans.
For several years, the law school has hosted Safe Zone training for faculty and staff/administrators. Safe Zone is a campus-wide training program committed to making the University a safer, more welcoming, and inclusive environment for the LGBTQ community.
The College has a total of five gender-neutral restrooms: two in our main building, and one each in three of our four annex buildings.
Each of the gender-neutral restrooms have signage as pictured below. The restrooms are not identified as such on building maps, and there is no restroom policy for the College.
LAW 695B, Gender & the Law
Yes, as noted in several answers above and below, we have an active Pride Law student group that is supported by the law school. Pride Law’s activities were highlighted in a recent weekly newsletter: http://www.law2.arizona.edu/alumni/Newsletters/NOV282018.htm
The dean sends out a weekly newsletter to thousands of alumni and friends of the college. In the November 28, 2018 edition, he featured Pride Law’s recent 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.
http://www.law2.arizona.edu/alumni/Newsletters/NOV282018.htm
We do annual Safe Zone 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. This year it will be co-sponsored by Pride Law and the College’s Diversity Committee, and will be available for students, faculty and staff. 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/).
Pride Law also is active in the broader Tucson community. This semester (fall 2018) the group participated in a transgender clothing swap that attracted more than 300 items of clothing donated by faculty and students, and organized two Name and Gender Marker Change Clinics that attracted more than 30 community clients. Fifteen students took the training to assist in the clinic, and more than 25 clients were served.
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 do not actively seek out LGBTQ+ prospective students, but we have a very active Pride Law student group.