Dallas International University 7500 West Camp Wisdom Road, Dallas, TX 75236

"Great people and a great program!"

"If you want a good education in field linguistics there is no better place to go."

"You know that you are in a good place when you are doing research for a sociolinguistic class and see your professor being cited by other experts in the field or when the same professor pulls out a map of a region where she had done extensive field work, gives us infrastructure and historical details, and asks us what we would think of the language vitality for several languages given that knowledge. For most of my time here, I was studying at the Center for Excellence in World Arts. I greatly appreciated the discussions on ethics when doing research. The topic was not presented as “What can we get away with in our quest for knowledge?” but rather focused on the question of “Are we actually benefiting the people we are learning from?” This non-parasitic role of an anthropologist who is there to learn and record not only for other academics but for the indigenous experts who have passed these traditions for who knows how many generations was greatly inspiring to me. As an artist myself, I was thrilled to interact with people from cultural backgrounds very different from my own while having that connection of creativity. The faculty greatly challenged my priorities and thought processes. When you study Anthropology, it will truly open your mind if you let it. You will find yourself wrong on many things, but that can actually be very exciting and rewarding. My only two regrets are not being able to continue due to life circumstances, and that I had to give up Hula when my ankle gave out. Yep, there was a class here where I got to find someone to train me in an art form, and there is a great Hālau in the area."

"Volunteered here in high school. I found them to be discriminatory of anything different towards me and their students (race, ideas, lgbtq). While other students (of a lighter shade) were allowed library or office work, my sister and I were given bathroom and cleaning duties. We were also not allowed lunch breaks during our volunteering. We were often being talked to in a condescending way. I can never stand by an institution that can be so cruel. How I wish I could go back and tell myself to find something else for volunteer credit. I hope the local high schools have gotten rid of the volunteering requirement because they do not deserve the help. God help anyone that steps through their doors not knowing who they really are because he is not in their hearts."

"While the overall expertise and spirit of collegiality at GIAL is remarkable, prospective students should be aware of three GIAL administrative policies that are out of step with mainstream expectations for institutions of higher education in the United States. 1- GIAL does not provide students with access to Federal Student Aid (i.e. FAFSA) due in part because GIAL would then have to comply with federal non-discrimination policies (see 2 and 3 below). 2- All GIAL employees are required to agree to a statement of faith. While graduate students are not required to agree to this statement of faith, they cannot participate in certain paid research and career options at GIAL without signing it. 3- Members of the LGBTQ community are liable to face harassment or expulsion at the hands of GIAL administration. According to the 2016-2017 Student Handbook, “GIAL community members are to… [abstain] from homosexual behavior…and from advocating any such behaviors.” For instance, in addition to discriminatory actions leveled against me, I have witnessed the GIAL administration forbid a gay graduate student from respectfully advocating for the rights and needs of the LGBTQ community, ban him from researching how various course topics intersected with elements of queer culture that can be found internationally, and manipulatively silence him from publicly speaking about the discriminatory actions they had taken against him. In August 2014 I enrolled in GIAL’s MA in Language and Culture Studies, planning to go into a career in humanitarian work. The 2014-2015 GIAL Student Handbook gave me no indication that the GIAL administration would be concerned with my sexual orientation, but I knew that GIAL was a conservative institution, so I did my best to respect the majority values at GIAL, which wasn’t too difficult as I myself was a religious and social conservative at that time. When I enrolled, I was excited about the emphasis that GIAL places on academic participation with ethnic and linguistic minorities and on training professionals for service to such communities. Since I am a member of an underprivileged minority community (i.e. the LGBTQ community), I find myself uniquely positioned to empathize with the experiences and needs of ethnic and linguistic minorities. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the GIAL administration does not value the perspectives that LGBTQ students can bring to GIAL. Instead, I witnessed the GIAL administration enforce the discriminatory actions that I’ve already mentioned (see 3 above) and was informed that those prohibitions also applied to me. Furthermore, I was put on behavioral probation because I was alleged to have been seen hugging another man on campus. As part of the probation, my words and actions were monitored with the threat of immediate expulsion if it were deemed that I had again transgressed GIAL's vague policy that "the conduct of…students...should honor Christ in all activities on and off the campus.” Along with the probation, the Dean of Academic Affairs told me the following: that I knew better than to claim that I had not "dishonored Christ”; that he knew that I knew that I had committed immorality; and that if I were thinking clearly, I would agree that I needed GIAL to punish and monitor my behavior for my own good. These statements were untrue and demeaning. While my expectation had been that GIAL would be a place where I could complete my graduate studies in peace, I felt stigmatized, unwelcomed, and unjustly scrutinized on a daily basis there. I withdrew from GIAL in January 2015 when discrimination based on sexual orientation was declared as official GIAL policy for students (see 3 above). I think discrimination based on faith and sexual orientation hurts GIAL’s mission, reputation, and academic goals, and I hope that at some point in the future, GIAL will recognize their mistake and welcome a more diverse student body, faculty, and staff."