The Dean, Ivan Gaetz, and Associate Dean of Libraries, Cassandra Kvenild, responded to allegations made by a Branding Iron article regarding an investigation into two incidents that took place in Studio Coe and Makerspace.
Gaetz said that while there were incidents and concerns by library employees, there wasn’t malintent by the administration to have LGBTQ+ signage removed.
“I wasn’t aware of anything going on in the Makerspace except with Studio Coe. Clearly, folks there were told to remove stuff and put them in a different space, not to get rid of them out of the library,” Gaetz said.
“We don’t want anything like that, it was a matter of moving it from a public area to a private area.”
The Deans of Libraries denied that the university Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was investigating the library regarding the incidents and instead insisted that they’ve been in contact with them.
“I wouldn’t use the word investigation. We are in contact with them,” Kvenild said, with Dean Gaetz adding on, “They may have had conversations with some folks in the library. I’m not aware but they could have talked to anybody else.”
Kvenild said that the library administration regularly requests all areas of the library to be cleared of any signage that was not approved by the administration.
“I’ll take ownership of asking the Assistant Deans to clear any postings in the building and public spaces that have not been approved and we do that annually. We have a high-use building, over 100 people working here, and thousands of students use it every day. We get lots of requests to put stuff in public areas and tons of people post things without asking, so we do regular sweeps,” Kvenild said.
Kvenild clarified that the administration would never ask any library employees to remove stuff from their private workspaces.
“We never asked anybody to take anything out of their private workspaces. Of course, we understand that our employees have their workspaces feel very homey and welcoming and reflecting of who they are. We encourage that, that’s part of what we understand as a good workplace to be. It’s really the public spaces where we monitor what’s posted because of the intense demand and the wide variety of perspectives that is present,” Kvenild said.
Makerspace Coordinator Jane Clayton and UW spokesperson Chad Baldwin were not able to be reached by time of publication.
