"These practices will harm your students, the ones you committed to loving 'fiercely, devotedly, and sacrificially,' for years to come."

Dear Dr. Taylor,

I am an alumna of Samford and have supported the university, financially and otherwise, since my graduation in 2008. Today, I am writing to document my disappointment with Samford’s exclusion of LGBTQ-affirming churches and groups at its ministry fair.

I’m sure you have heard from many other faculty, staff, students, and alumni about the problematic nature of the new guest ministry organizations policy, and I hope you have listened as current and former students tell you about how similar policies and practices at Samford (e.g., rejection of the “Samford Together” group) have caused them harm.

In case my peers’ appeals to your humanity do not resonate with you, I would like to offer an appeal to your rationality. I am a researcher by trade, inspired by my professors to become one myself, and I have been trained to privilege the intellectual over the emotional. I understand that you, too, are trained in the fields of economics and finance, so I hope that what follows demonstrates, in no uncertain terms, what policies like Samford’s are doing to your LGBTQ+ students.

Research overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that exclusionary practices in higher education are emotionally, instrumentally, socially, and spiritually harmful to LGBTQ+ students. Socially, LGBTQ+ students experience microaggressions (Hughes, 2019), bullying (Moran et al., 2018), and alienation (Craig et al., 2017; Wilson & Liss, 2022), and these experiences have a host of negative outcomes. In one study of LGBTQ+ students, 84.8% of students had been verbally victimized, and 28.0% had been criminally victimized; victimization was significantly and positively associated with self-harm (Gnan et al., 2019). Sexual minority students at non-affirming religious universities, specifically, also demonstrated mental health concerns as they were above the moderate cutoff point for depression, substance use, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, eating concerns, academic distress, hostility, and family distress (Wolff et al., 2016). Lack of acceptance was also a predictor of lower quality of life, higher suicidality, and mental health symptoms on a religious campus (Klundt et al., 2021). Despite these negative impacts, there are steps that administrators on college campuses can take to protect their LGBTQ+ students, like providing student groups (Vespone, 2016). So far, Samford has failed to do this, and this new policy serves as a further barrier for LGBTQ+ students to find affirming, supportive community outside of the campus environment.

Dr. Taylor, at your inauguration, you described the cornerstone of your leadership philosophy as being “rooted in love.” You said, “Some might think it too abstract, or too emotional, or too self-evident to claim [love] as the foundation of all we do at an academic institution, at a modern university. But if our efforts aren’t rooted and grounded in love, in the love of Christ, I contend that we will fail.” On this point, you and I agree. The policies you are now supporting are not grounded in love, but in fear, exclusion, greed, and bigotry. Make no mistake; these practices will harm your students, the ones you committed to loving “fiercely, devotedly, and sacrificially,” for years to come.

Now is the time for you to choose love.

Sincerely,

Dr. Erin Basinger, Samford University Class of 2008