Iowa State’s own Shawn Boyne, director of academic quality and undergraduate education, shared her stories of standing up for human rights beginning at a young age.

“I’m the daughter of parents who never hesitated to stand up for what they believed in,” Boyne began as she recounted her mother speaking out in church against anti-abortion rhetoric. 

Boyne said she learned how to be a fearless advocate at a young age, as she was charged with protecting her younger brother throughout grade school. Her father told her it was her duty to protect him.

“My protest muscles strengthened in high school […] it’s important to know most people didn’t even try to hide the fact that women and girls were discriminated against,” Boyne said.

Boyne remembered multiple times in high school when applying for positions, or even wanting to give a graduation speech, where she was told that they were looking for a boy for the position, not a girl.

“Women who did not want to be home makers had to fight to open doors in society,” Boyne said.

“I walked around with a burning anger about omnipresent gender disparities.” 

Boyne said that living through the Watergate Scandal taught her that power could and should be challenged. 

Boyne participated in many protests during her years in law school. One specifically was at a women’s prison in California. 

Boyne said the protest that came to define her happened at the end of her law school career. While president of The Student Bar Association at USC, Boyne was approached by a GLBT group on campus wanting to protest the visit of Supreme Court Justice Byron White, who was infamous for his anti-LGBT+ rhetoric. Later, Boyne was told by USC they should not and could not protest on campus.

Boyne took matters into her own hands when she decidedly taped a large poster to her leg and attended White’s event on campus. While Justice White was speaking, Boyne stood up and held high her sign that read, “USC supports it’s gay students”.

Boyne recounted the dean and associate dean staring right at her, while the Special Services headed her way, before being told to stand down.

“I expected to be arrested as I left the building, but I was not,” Boyne said. “The only retribution I received were dozens of hate letters stuffed in my student mailbox.”

Boyne said she did not regret the actions she took, as it never occurred to her to not speak up for what she believed in.

“My actions have little impact beyond the small community that I was a member of, I don’t even know if most of my classmates remember it,” Boyne said. “However, as Seneca once wrote, the happy life is not to be found in pleasure or possessions, but in learning what is the right thing to do and then doing it. No matter how many people claim otherwise.”