Q&A with new director of The Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success at Iowa State University
Susan Harper, the director of the Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success at Iowa State University, spoke with the Ames Tribune as the center celebrates its 30th anniversary. But she also spoke about herself — as the center's new director.
Harper, who started in July as the center's second full-time director in its history, talked about what motivates her to lead and what a space like the center would have meant to her as a gay woman navigating college.
She's originally from Yankton, South Dakota, and went to college at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. She has graduate degrees from Southern Methodist University and Texas Woman's University.
Her wife is Stephanie Beaver, and they have two cats.
"I wouldn't have moved halfway across the country if I wasn't pretty sure (about the job). Next to marrying Stephanie, taking this job is the best decision I ever made because the opportunity to walk into a center with this kind of legacy and this kind of history, and be given the charge of 'honor the history but take us into the future,' is so exciting," she said.
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Below is a Q&A with Harper. Her answers were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: Did you have a place like this in college? If you did, what did it mean for you? Did it make life easier? If you didn't, did that make life more difficult at that time in your life?
Harper: I did not have a spot like this in college. When I got to graduate school I had the women's center at SMU … So, the queer kids and the people who were interested in sort of women's issues and gender equality issues were all in that space. As an undergraduate I didn't, but ... we had a supportive community.
I was in college from 1993 to 1997, so we were at a time when things were starting to change. When I got to SMU and experienced the women's center, I really wish I'd had something like that as an undergraduate, because it was a way to connect with (the) community, but it wasn't even in my thought to think that a place like that would exist.
I now see the role that these centers play for traditionally aged students between 17 and 23, especially as sort of the culture has shifted in a variety of interesting ways, and I do wonder sometimes, 'What would that have been like?' Most of the friends I have are probably people I would have met at centers.
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How do you personally find the balance between finding the best place where you can do the most as a leader versus just wanting to live your life and have the best opportunities for your family? And then out of that, what advice can you give to people about that, especially LGBTQ+ people?
When I got here (to visit Iowa State), I was really surprised to realize how robust the infrastructure was and how beautiful the space was, how much support we have. And that made it an easy decision.
But there is always the question of, I was in Texas, I thought I would never leave because that's where the work had to be done. And I think that's something that we think about in this work, you think about where the students and community need you, and where your talents are best put to work, and then you have to think about the climate, and that was the other thing I wanted to check out.
Again, Ames kind of blows my mind. I was driving around town and was like, 'OK, so there's pride flags everywhere. Half the churches have signs that God loves everybody. Wow, I could do this work here.'
I think what it was for me was to weigh, there have often been times doing diversity work generally — this is my first position where I'm doing LGBTQIA+ work specifically — but I was doing multicultural work in the South, which has its own challenges … my university was supportive, but there was a lot to take on there, and I asked myself in looking at walking in here, 'What would it be like to work someplace where we're not having to continuously assert the fundamental humanity of our students and instead be someplace where we're really trying to move toward equality and community?'
I have friends that are doing work in parts of the Deep South and parts of the American West where this is not what they have. One of the things I love about Iowa State is that a lot of the battles that my colleagues are fighting elsewhere now, those were fought and addressed with hard work before I got here — to which, so much gratitude — and we're able to move on to the next thing.
We've baked a lot of stuff into the cake here that's still really groundbreaking and controversial elsewhere, like you have your pronouns put on your name tag. Our students can change their (university ID) so it reflects their name accurately. Those are things that people have to fight for on other campuses.
If I was meant to be doing the hard work of breaking new ground, that's where I would've ended up, and here we're ready to, well, break other new ground and hopefully be — I think we can be a national benchmark. That's really my goal. I want people to know we're here, so that the next person who gets a job (and) says 'They have a what?' instead wants to come here.
Given everything that has been in the news this year — the end of Roe v. Wade and questions about what the means for gay marriage going forward, and the "Don't Say Gay" bill — how do you view the future? What's the mood in the community?
People are having different reactions. I think there's concern but also a lot of hope expressed within the community. I think it changes based on the day.
We’re kind of creating this space where people can talk about it, because it does change based on the day and based on what else is going on. I find that this group of students and my sense from my colleagues who do this work across the country is that our students are very social justice-focused and action-focused, so there tends to be a 'how' conversation. 'What are we going to do? What are the options? How do we get engaged civically?'
To be an LGBTQIA+ person in this culture, to be a marginalized person of many different identities is to live in a culture where sometimes we have to fight for our own happiness or we have to find it even when people think we shouldn't have it. It can be challenging. Right now, we're able to provide a space where students are really leading the discussions and to give space for everything that goes with this.
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Something about students in the center is they’re not afraid to speak out, so they are letting us know what they need in terms of support and in terms of what do they need for resources. And we’re just going to serve that, because we are living in interesting times.
No matter what sort of happens or what comes up, we try to go back to those pillars of pride and community and know that whatever's coming, we're going to take care of each other and find some joy along the way, too, even when it's hard, maybe especially when it's hard.
Phillip Sitter covers education for the Ames Tribune, including Iowa State University and PreK-12 schools in Ames and elsewhere in Story County. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Q&A with Susan Harper, new director of Iowa State's LGBTQIA+ center
