What is the Safe Zone program?

Photo courtesy of Dr. Alice Rutkowski

Both students and faculty work together to facilitate safe zone training sessions to make Geneseo a safer place for all students to attend.

Around campus, you might have seen professors, college students, and other staff alike toting around Safe Zone stickers, pledging that they have completed training under the program. Though some might already be familiar with it, not everyone might have heard of the program that seeks to provide SUNY Geneseo students, faculty, and staff with foundational training on LGBTQIA+ vocabulary, topics, and issues.

Coming to campus in 2000, the Safe Zone program has a long-standing history in Geneseo and has been run by Dr. Alice Rutkowski, chair of the English department, for the last 14 years. The program more broadly seeks to inform more members of the community about the LGBTQIA+ community and create more active allies, serving as a visible support for LGBTQIA+ persons on campus; though, all are encouraged to come, even those already belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community in one way or another, as many different identity categories fall under the larger umbrella, and becoming better informed about different members of one’s own community is a great way to create solidarity and understanding. 

A typical training is held over the course of three hours, and attendants fill out a Google Form to have their sticker created and sent out to them stating that that individual completed the course. Over the three hours, two of the program's trainers walk attendees through exercises that help identify different common terms in the LGBTQIA+ space, talk about the different components of sexual identity, provide an overview of pronoun usage and transgender identities, discuss the nuance of coming out, run through different scenarios one might come across and how to tackle them, answer attendants questions, and make room for open discussion regarding LGBTQIA+ topics. So, while the three hours might seem like a long time initially, with the wide amount of topics covered, the time tends to fly by— while still only seeking to provide attendants with the basics of becoming better informed.

Once one has become Safe Zone trained, the program hopes that they are “…individuals [who] identify themselves as allies and are to the best of their ability understanding, supportive and trustworthy. Safe Zone members are committed to treating everyone with the dignity and respect they are entitled to as human beings, regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, level of ability, national background, or religion. These individuals are committed to educating themselves about oppression, heterosexism, and homophobia, and to combating it on a personal level,” according to their page on the Geneseo website. 

For those who wish to attend training, the program holds an Open Student training about once a month, where any student can come in and get training in the program. Announcements of where these are and how to pre-register (though you also can certainly walk in on the day of) can be found on the program's Instagram @safezonegeneseo and around campus on the posters created by the program. There are also Open Faculty trainings for members of the college faculty and staff who would like to have access to information to become better allies and see the kind of work students and fellow colleagues implement through this program. 

If you are part of a club that would be interested in getting trained as a whole, on their Geneseo page, you can find a link to register your club, sports team, or Greek organization to be trained as a group. You can also contact Dr. Rutkowski directly through her email (rutkowsk@geneseo.edu)! This is a great way to create a culture of inclusion within your organization. 

For those looking to get even further involved, every year, the program holds interviews for students seeking to become Safe Zone trainers and work as part of the program to educate fellow campus members on LGBTQIA+ issues and topics. If you succeed at your interview, you will be approved to take the “Train-the-Trainer” course (WGST 232), which gives potential trainers the information and practice needed to be successful in their budding roles.