Be The Change
Story by: Elyse Clayton
“Stephens College prides itself on being inclusive, diverse and very sophisticated. The administration talks a lot about what it does for the students and their careers and wellbeing, but there are actual issues it never seems to address.”
-Letter to Stephens
Disclaimer: This blog post does not represent the views of Stephens College, Stephens Life or the author. It is simply a deeper look into the Instagram account @lettertostephens.
The Beginnings
At the start of the spring semester, an anonymous student (hereon referred to as LTS) started an Instagram account (@lettertostephens) to address various issues at Stephens College. From COVID regulations to misgendering nonbinary students and everything in between, LTS shares personal issues as well as problems other students bring to light through direct messages. “Basically, I was just tired of not being listened to,” they shared in an interview. “I have friends who were like, ‘Yeah, I voiced my concern, and I was just kind of pushed aside like they didn’t really take me seriously.’ But they can't argue with this because they don't know who I am.”
The idea started as an email to Stephens administration. LTS even created an encrypted, anonymous email account and wrote several drafts. Instagram originally served as more of a student connection than actual outreach to faculty. However, LTS decided to stay on social media and tag the main Stephens College account. “I decided to keep it to the social media account just because it’s a little bit easier and that way people can voice their concerns to me directly and I can post them,” they said.
The Issues
The account has shared many problems at Stephens, including:
Inaccessibility for physical disabilities, especially concerning the ramp to Stamper and the lack of elevators in dorms.
Lax COVID precautions.
Lack of communication to students about campus changes and decisions.
Lack of involvement of students in the decision-making process.
Misgendering of nonbinary students.
Poor dining options.
Poor living conditions.
Lack of playground equipment for the Children’s School at Stephens College (CSSC).
Lack of communication from facilities when working on dorm-related issues.
Favoritism of majors.
LTS shared that they try to limit the number of personal posts and instead want to focus on relating to other people’s problems. “A lot of people's problems that they DM me with are problems that I also share, and I tell them that,” they said. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, thanks for the message.’ It’s, ‘I understand; I’m sorry that’s happening.’ I try to connect with everybody who reaches out because I know it’s kind of difficult to be like, ‘Hey, this really awful thing happened to me.’ Even if it seems small… I try to sort of relate to everything in what I post, but also make sure it’s not about me, if that makes any sense. Like, I hear you, and we’re connecting, but also this is your problem, and thank you for bringing it to our attention.” Regarding personal issues, the account holder identifies as nonbinary and has shared many of their experiences with misgendering.
The Forum
On Feb. 8, President Dianne Lynch and the Student Government Association (SGA) hosted an open forum for students to discuss projects and issues at Stephens. LTS, who attended the forum, said in a later interview, “At the forum, they acknowledged that it [the Letter to Stephens account] exists and even said that that’s why the forum was held, which was really weird to me.”
According to LTS, one item addressed, with some success, was the issue with facilities. When emailing facilities, students now receive an automatic reply to show that the message has been received and acknowledged. When staff members from facilities start working to address the issue, they utilize door tags to show their progress. Stephens even hopes to implement an app in the future to help track progress. “The facilities issue about communication and getting stuff done, because that was a concern that a lot of people had, was addressed wonderfully at the forum,” LTS said. “The guy who’s in charge of it seemed really, really sincere and genuine.”
However, other problems were reportedly “brushed aside” when brought up, and the account owner even expressed frustration with misgendering within the forum. “During the forum, the president was like, ‘You’re all women; you’re all women here at this women’s college,’ and like, okay, but I’m not a woman,” LTS said. “It was just repeated over and over like that. I honestly felt really upset, like maybe you don’t understand the terminology, and that’s fine, but it was deliberately misgendering me and misgendering everyone else who doesn’t identify as a woman on campus.”
The forum also brought up the issue that Stephens cannot address anonymous complaints, which the account would fall under. “When the forum very first started, and they talked about how it was because of the account, I was honestly kind of moved,” LTS shared. “I was like, alright, don’t get emotional because that’s going to give you away. But then they got into, like, ‘I don’t address anonymous concerns, you can come up to my office.’” LTS expressed that many people had already brought these issues to faculty members and even the president, but had been “swept aside or not taken seriously.” LTS went on to say, “You [the school] have not made this a place to be direct about issues, so if you’re not going to acknowledge my account just because it’s anonymous, then I’m just going to keep posting more until you can’t ignore it. Clearly you can’t ignore it now, but I’m going to make it bigger.”
LTS did consider coming forward and revealing their identity, especially because they plan on transferring out of Stephens at the end of the semester. “I just no longer feel comfortable here, and if I’m being honest I’m just kind of miserable,” they said. “A lot of the problems are because of residential life. Dorms are straight-up falling apart; food is just not very good; I have problems with being misgendered on campus; I just don’t feel comfortable. Also I’m just not learning what I thought I would be in my classes. So, I am going to be withdrawing, and I’ll probably transfer in the fall.” LTS did, however, express their desire to continue their work with the account, at least until the end of the summer.