Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Opinion

Michael Rizzo

Seth Hodge, 29, is a residential life coordinator for University Housing Services. Last May, his staff was about to do something he didn't think was right.

"How hypocritical is it," he said, "to sit in my office and talk to students on a daily basis about their choices to violate policy, when the department that is telling them not to do that is doing the same thing?"

So, he wrote a letter.

Eight months later, so did President Don Kassing:

"After extensive consultation, I am suspending all blood drives at San Jose State University."

He'd never say it himself, but Seth Hodge is the next Rosa Parks.


Behind the line

It was December 1, 1955. Parks boarded the bus and took the only seat left where she was allowed to sit - an aisle seat in the row directly behind the last row of white folks.

A few stops later, some white passengers got on, filled up the rest of the white seats and one man was left standing.

The bus driver decided the first row of black seats would now be white seats and directed Parks and those sitting in her row to stand.

They all did - all of them except Parks. She stayed.

The driver pulled over, got off the bus and summoned the police.


The nondiscrimination policy

"San Jose State University does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. This policy applies to all SJSU student, faculty and staff programs and activities."

The former clause is not one you'll find in a typical university nondiscrimination policy. Our university, though, has a dedication to diversity. It was even the focus of last year's Shared Values commitment - part of Vision 2010, the university's current strategic plan.

"We are advertising ourselves as this organization," Hodge said, "that has a strong passion for diversity and a desire to make a difference in that way. We made a conscious effort - a conscious choice - to extend the policy beyond basic hiring practices. I think we need to live up to that promise."


Roped off

At a staff meeting last spring, Hodge learned that one of his colleagues was organizing a blood drive. Immediately, he told me, SJSU's nondiscrimination policy - which Hodge knew by heart - flashed through his mind.

"I was hired to come in here and oversee these buildings and to advocate for the students that I was hired to support," Hodge told me. "Ten percent of my student population is LGBT - that's statistics. Half of that is male. So what we were saying is that 5 percent of our students shouldn't have the right to participate in our campus activities."

He took his concern to his supervisor. She took it to hers.

But it's a difficult concept to understand. An activity that the university has been a part of for so long and that is such a benefit to the community was taking away the rights of students.

Students whom the university said it values.

"The decision made by the department," Hodge said, "was that the benefit of the blood drive to our mission outweighed the benefit of the nondiscrimination policy's mission - in that instance."


Standing her ground

Parks stayed seated on the bus, knowing the police would arrive soon. Most of the black folks got off when then had the opportunity.

Not Parks.

"(The police officer) wanted to know why I didn't stand," she said in a 1995 interview with Academy of Achievement, "and I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up."

Then she asked him why her people got pushed around so much.

His answer, she said, "I quote: 'I don't know, but the law is the law, and you are under arrest.'"


Taking a back seat

After Hodge filed a formal discrimination grievance with the Office for Equity and Diversity, things started moving. Slow at first, but then faster and faster.

"Many months," he said. "Many letters. A lot of talk back here, talk back there. It escalated up to the vice president and then went up to the president. It was a big deal."

Hodge told me he wasn't looking to be a trendsetter. He thought his actions might make campus headlines, but he never expected more. All he wanted was to fulfill the promise his department had made to its students. The credit, he told me, goes to Kassing.

"This wasn't a 'me' thing," he said. "This wasn't, 'I'm changing the world.' I just wrote a letter."


General admission

Parks didn't have to do what she did. She could have given up her seat. She could have gotten off the bus.

Hodge didn't have to do what he did. He could have kept quiet. He could have told students to lie about being gay.

Parks protested a law that was irrational. Hodge protested a policy that is unjustified.

After Parks came the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and more blacks began refusing to offer up their seats. After Hodge came SJSU's blood drive suspension, and now other schools are following suit.

Parks actions began a chain of events that ended American segregation. Hodge began a chain of events that will bring change to a federally endorsed policy of discrimination.

Hodge told me that for him, it's always been about the principle. He became an educator to make a difference in people's lives.

"That means 100 different things," he said. "Sometimes it's a one-on-one conversation with somebody in my office. Sometimes it's working with my student staff to present good programs. And sometimes it's writing a letter that's going to make a political change at a university."


Past "This Queer Life" columns:
Judging by the cover
Boys who hit boys
The choir preaching back
Aunt Sam's Log Cabin
Bad blood
Out of the loop

Related Stories:
March 12, 2008: Two San Jose JCs suspend blood drives
March 11, 2008: S.J. colleges may ban blood drives
Feb. 25, 2008: Kassing requests FDA to meet about blood drives
Feb. 18, 2008: Board slams FDA policy
Feb. 14, 2008: Campus Voices: Do you agree with SJSU's ban on blood drives?
Feb. 13, 2008: University stands alone in blood policy
Feb. 13, 2008: President fields questions from campus media
Feb. 13, 2008: Opinion: Making sense out of blood drive nonsense
Feb. 12, 2008: Controversy no longer local
Feb. 7, 2008: Plot thickens in wake of blood drive suspension
Feb. 7, 2008: Where to donate blood off campus
Feb. 7, 2008: Opinion: This Queer Life: Bad Blood
Feb. 4, 2008: President halts blood drives; policy questioned
Feb. 4, 2008: Opinion: Making a deadly situation worse
Jan. 30, 2008: Blood drives stopped
Poll: Do you agree with SJSU's blood drive ban?

Other Links:
Jan. 29 Letter from President Kassing
Information from the President's office
Feb. 21 Letter from President Kassing

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