Blood drives to move off campus, and gender-neutral bathrooms at the GC

There’s a bunch of great news in the DSC report in the latest issue of The GC Advocate.

Following the DSC’s resolution against discriminatory blood drives on campus, and discussion with President Kelly, the GC has committed not to hold any on-campus drives until they are non-discriminatory. The DSC has also been working on establishing gender-neutral bathrooms at the GC, since our resolution on this taken in the spring—and these will soon be installed.

“Last Spring, the Doctoral Students’ Council passed a resolution to move blood drives off campus until the FDA’s ban on the blood of men who have or have had sex with men is lifted. In the last issue of the Advocate, two DSC officers authored an article that expanded upon the resolution, making the argument that moving drives off campus maintains the university as a safe space, non-discriminatory against any of the university’s members. Since then, the Graduate Center canceled the announced October blood drive, and the DSC has been told by the GC administration that blood drives would not take place on campus in the future.

Another effort motivated by a resolution passed last Spring has gained ground. In the Spring, the DSC passed a resolution to establish gender neutral bathrooms at the Graduate Center, and DSC officers submitted a proposal to use capital gains funds to do so. In conversations with the president, we learned that a plan to create gender-neutral bathrooms is going forward.”

Read more over at The GC Advocate.