Nebraska State College System’s proposed policies draw criticism

Governor Ricketts and others say the policies could do more harm than good.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – There’s no shortage of controversy when it comes to some policies on the agenda for the Nebraska State College System’s Board of Trustees. Among the many items they plan on discussing on Thursday, two items relating to gender identity are generating nearly all of the buzz.

The Board will consider revising Board Policy 5007 and creating a new policy, 5012.  5007 serves to define different types of harassment and discrimination, and 5012 is a way of handling gender identity among school employees.

The concerns from such voices as Governor Pete Ricketts and the Nebraska Family Alliance are that these policies will create unsafe situations for women and limit free speech. The NSCS denies that either policy will have bad effects.

“This policy goes too far”, says Nebraska Family Alliance Executive Director Karen Bowling. “It could possibly infringe on free speech, and that’s First Amendment protection we truly do value”.

A lot of that concern stems from a line in 5012 that reads, in part, “…employees should respect the chosen name and gender identity of other employees wherever possible…”. One particular issue Bowling raised is that people could be punished for failing to acknowledge that language. NSCS Chancellor Dr. Paul Turman says it was never meant to be punitive.

“It simply now says that we promote a really strong, collegial work environment and that we encourage people to utilize chosen name and identity wherever possible”, Dr. Turman explains. “If you can’t use a pronoun, use the chosen name. If you prefer not to use the chosen name, then use the designated name that we normally had in our system.”

Another point of contention comes from 5007, which defines the types of discrimination. An early draft mentioned an example of someone being barred from using the restroom of the gender they identified with, even if it didn’t match the gender they were born with. Opponents say this will create an opportunity for sexual assault.

Dr. Turman says he doesn’t believe the revision will cause that, saying, “Dating back to 2015, when this policy was first put in place, we’ve yet to have an incident where that has happened. Simply allowing people to change their identity in our information system, or HR system, does not create the door for individuals to come and do harm to anybody else.”

Bowling disagrees, pointing to other incidents: “Unfortunately, across the nation, we’re seeing that where someone misguided inappropriately gets access and does harm a woman. This policy, as written, would not protect women from men being able to enter private spaces.”

According to Dr. Turman, if an assault does happen, sexual assault policies go into play, regardless of where the assault happens or who is involved. He also reaffirms the NSCS’s stance that providing a definition to who is protected from discrimination doesn’t change how they do things. “Gender identity, sexual orientation have been a protected class in the State of Nebraska, certainly within our college, since 2015”, he says.

Still, Bowling and the Nebraska Family Alliance are hoping for a different way forward.

“What can we do to ensure safety, privacy, and free speech with people that are on both sides on this”, she asks. “It is a way to honor one another and do so in a civil manner without changing ideologically driven public policy.”

The NFA has been urging people to reach out to the NSCS Board of Trustees with their concerns, providing a template to do so respectfully. Dr. Turman confirms many messages have been received, and he expects this meeting to be the busiest he’s ever seen at NSCS.