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President Coker reiterates College’s support of LGBTQ+ community

The following is a letter, titled “Celebrating PRIDE Month & Supporting Our LGBTQ+ Community,” emailed June 14, 2021 to the campus community from Maryville College President Dr. Bryan F. Coker.

Dear MC Community Members,

When acknowledgments of PRIDE Month were posted on the College’s and my own social media channels recently, I learned from longtime faculty and staff members that those were the College’s first-ever such official acknowledgments. I was rather surprised by that news, though I am certainly not naive to the complex and unfortunate histories in this regard. Further, local and national news outlets have recently covered a troubling incident in nearby Alcoa, in which teens were confronted and berated for public art that demonstrated their support for PRIDE month and the LGBTQ+ community. And within the state of Tennessee, recent legislation pertaining to all-gender restrooms has been polarizing, and certainly difficult for the LGBTQ+ population.

Given our College history and as we now find ourselves in the midst of PRIDE month, I want to be very clear about the College’s position. We fully affirm and support our LGBTQ+ identifying community members, and are committed to a campus environment which embodies such affirmation and support. As we move forward with the work of the president’s advisory board and working groups on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we will be very mindful of and attentive to questions and issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community, and all marginalized populations. I also want to strongly commend our faculty, staff, students, and alumni who are active in their local communities, endeavoring to affect positive change.

The undeniable hyper-politicization of diversity, equity, and inclusion matters in our society is, in my opinion, unfortunate, counterproductive, and unnecessary. While the political implications are clear and significant, I believe these matters are, first and foremost, ones of basic human rights and dignity. And, as an institution which has sought to admit and educate all persons since our founding, we will be proactive and vigilant in honoring the rights and dignity of all community members.

Sincerely,

Bryan F. Coker, Ph.D.
President

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”