5.0504 Rs: re Survey on Lesbian and Gay Faculty (2/37)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 5 Dec 1991 17:48:51 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0504. Thursday, 5 Dec 1991.


(1) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1991 16:12:10 +0200 (EET) (24 lines)
From: LBJUDY@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL
Subject: RE: 5.0493 Survey re Lesbian and Gay Faculty

(2) Date: Thu, 05 Dec 91 08:17:24 MST (13 lines)
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 5.0493 Survey re Lesbian and Gay Faculty

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1991 16:12:10 +0200 (EET)
From: LBJUDY@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL
Subject: RE: 5.0493 Survey re Lesbian and Gay Faculty (1/54)

I suspect you're going to get a lot of flak over this one! (if anyone
still remembers what flak is...) Personally I can't think of many
reasons why anyone should want to do a survey like this, or why
they should expect any of us to be the "informants", and I think
they owe us at least the courtesy of giving some indication of why
they want the information and to what use it'll be put.

That's quite apart from the problem of how reliable any of it is
going to be: to me it looks like an invitation to rumor-monger.

If someone is doing a piece of academic research, that's one thing
(though you can't tell much from the information requested); if
it's going to somewhere that intends to turn down requests for
funding from any university department, one of whose members thinks
that over 30% of his/her peers are gay, that's another. Etc. etc:
I'm sure everyone gets the idea.

I shall now sit back and enjoy watching the other sparks fly...

Judy Koren, Haifa
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 91 08:17:24 MST
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 5.0493 Survey re Lesbian and Gay Faculty (1/54)

I can hardly believe that you are asking me to gossip about my
colleagues in the flimsy disguise of a survey. A person's sexual
habits are his or her own; they are none of your damned business nor
mine. Moreover, this pseudo-survey will tell you nothing more than
the respondents' _perceptions_ about their co-workers.

Ellis 'Skip' Knox
Historian, Data Center Associate
Boise State University dusknox@idbsu.idbsu.edu