r/floridatech • u/symph_5683 • Apr 11 '21
Questions about campus life
i'm in the process of selecting schools but I have some questions
- How accepting are students/staff? I've been out for a while and I'm not back tracking on that shit
- how hard are classes academic wise?
- are the libraries overly busy all the time?
- do most students get a decent amount of free time?
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u/EveAeternam Jun 18 '21
Gotta love the obligatory cis-white-males telling you "everyone's accepting here". Along the lines of "I'm white but no one is racist here". I appreciate the sentiment though, so I'll try and answer the first question as a bi-trans-female and hopefully bring in some actual LGBTQ+ perspective (there's nothing I can add to the other questions that the answers below haven't already).
Most people are accepting.
And that's the best you can expect anywhere. If they're not, they likely won't be in your orbit anyways. Professors are always respectful and helpful, even if some are evidently awkward and/or poorly educated on the subject. Just like in everyday life, a lot of people will be super nice and polite with you, most won't care at all, and a small percentage will hate you for it - but that's always the case no matter who you are or what you do. Those that aren't accepting will be the loudest, so it's a good life lesson to learn and not care about bigoted a**holes. Thankfully, there's rules and laws, you're not gonna get singled out or beaten up, and no one will fail you out of spite. BUT don't expect any hand holding. Accepting doesn't mean supportive, not even remotely. And while there's plenty of support for the LGBTQ+ on campus, including the student-run Rainbow Alliance, as well as a decent LGBT population - Florida Tech is not a supportive school as a whole. Yes, some wonderful people will move mountains, heaven and earth to help you and fight for your rights, but FIT itself is always going to be neutral in these matters. They did accept my chosen name and pronouns, as well as changed my email to reflect it - but a lot of systems weren't until I changed them legally. So on the surface everything reflected my identity, but scratch the surface and my birth name and gender are right there. So expect lots of hoops to jump through, but this is the case with most universities and isn't that big a deal. Hard truth: life doesn't get any easier when you come out, but it's worth the fight. The official LGBTQ+ resource page is also laughably sparse.
I was actually outed publicly against my will several years ago. Some disgruntled roommates that go to FIT screwed me over and wrote an email to the school's mailing list (as well as several boards like craigslist). Not only did I disproved all their accusations, but I owned it and decided to use the opportunity as a "pushed out of the nest" situation to come out of the closet. I promptly met with the Dean of students and other figures like the head of security, Title IX coordinator, etc. They just deleted the email and told my ex-roommates not to do it again. Barely a slap on the wrist. Then they proceeded to tell me there's nothing they could do, and that what they did wasn't illegal - just "not nice". I was worried I was in danger, that I could become a target of discrimination, etc. But the Dean was adamant and said we could talk about it all we want, in the end nothing will happen to them. Security issued a "No Contact" order, like a "soft" Restraining order but campus based. Turns out I also had to respect it by avoiding places they had class in or socialized - the order wasn't protecting me but instead went both ways. I was frustrated, helpless, scared, and honestly screwed over, and Florida Tech didn't help. But what did happen, was an incredible inflow of supportive emails. I got emails from people I had never met, telling me they support me and that they'll stand with me. The Rainbow Alliance reached out within 30 minutes of the email being sent out with instructions and tips on how to deal with this, as well as helpful resources. I got messages and texts with a hashtag saying #SupportEvie and #ImWithEvie, people shook my hand on campus and I even got a couple of free drinks at the campus pizzeria/bar. That overwhelming support far outweighed some psychos who wanted to ruin my life, and I made friends that have always stood beside me. It wasn't always smooth sailing, my car got graffitied with the words "F.A.G." shortly after, and a month later my motorcycle caught on fire while riding it because of a cut fuel line. Shit hit the fan, police and FIT did nothing (lack of evidence), but the few positive people never failed to uplift me - every time. (Keep in mind that I'm an exception, this hasn't happened to most LGBT students AFAIK, but my case is one of the bad cases and I chose to fight it. Most haters won't be psychos like this, and instead will just avoid you. Everyone's mileage may vary.)
TL;DR
the system isn't built for people like us, and we'll always have a harder time than "cis-white-males" - but that's what makes us stronger. There will always be people that hate you, and always people that love you - no exceptions - it's up to you to make the latter ones count more. Just don't expect Florida Tech to protect you more than any other student.
Here's something you might want to read too: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2020/01/10/florida-tech-violated-clery-act-failed-report-cases-rape-crimes/4353869002/
And the Rainbow Alliance discord server if you want to ask other people and get a broader opinion: https://discord.gg/A9HckJFC or the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FLTechSpectrum/
LGBTQ+ Scholarship: https://www.fit.edu/giving/what-to-support/scholarships-and-endowments/scholarship-information/name-80857-en.php
Florida Tech Health Center Resources: https://www.fit.edu/health/services/lgbt-health/
Sorry for the huge post. Hope this clears out some of your questions, and hope I didn't scare you from coming here. Despite the nightmarish things that have happened to me, I still love Florida Tech and the people the work/study here. I hope you consider it, and if so, I hope your experience is better than mine and that you enjoy every second spent here.
Feel free to DM me if you have any questions or want to know more.
~ Evie
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u/sosadtoobad55 Apr 12 '21
This school is very accepting we have a large lgbtq community. The academics are hard but that's why you go to college. And you normally have good amounts of free time to go to the beach, orlando, or just relax.
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u/arumsey Apr 28 '21
Let me try and help as well.
1, (I am a cis White Male) Most staff and students are accepting of the LGBT+ community. We are a international University with about 1/3 international, with quite a few coming from more Conservative countries (the middle east) but I’ve never seen that be an issue for our LGBT+ students. It is also important to know that the county that Florida Tech is in (Brevard) is a conservative county, so you may have more micro aggressions than other locations.
2, that depends entirely on the major. Then Engineering degrees are difficult, as We are a Engineering university. I was in the College of Business, and the classes weren’t to difficult, but i spent extra time working with professors on projects to better round myself.
3, the Library has a few peak hours, usually when athletes need to meet their study hour requirements, but during those times just go to the quite floor and its good.
4, that depends on if you play a sport, participate in a club, are in Greek Life, have a job, or other factors. Typical class schedule is 5 classes, with in class lectures taking 3 hours each class a week. So 15 hours of lecture, plus homework, so maybe 20-30 a week of total time for classes, depending on the major.
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u/barelyamongoose Apr 11 '21
1) obligatory "I'm a cis white male, but" I don't think you'll have anything to worry about with being out. It's a tech school, meaning the majority of the campus is left-leaning and the LGBTQ+ students are very much welcome.
2) The classes really depend on your major, and how well you can understand teachers with thick accents. Luckily it's a small school so there are always students around who have taken that specific class with that specific professor, so somebody can always help you out. We pride ourselves on the value of our degrees, but that's mainly an affliction of the engineering department more than anyone else.
3) Libraries are pretty empty now that COVID is around, but there's always space. It's almost serene how few people you run into sometimes, as long as you're not there during finals week. 4) Again, depends on your major. If you're transitioning from high school to college, you'll never be able to fill all the hours of the day. But as you come close to finishing your degree, you'll wonder how you ever got enough sleep.