By Douglass Dowty and Milena Evtimova

Revered for her openness and unwavering professionalism, Director of the Multicultural Resource Center and Assistant Dean of Students Rachel Beverly was perhaps Oberlin’s biggest champion of the MRC and the Edmonia Lewis Center. Known as an intense and warm individual, Beverly pulled the two beleaguered campus organizations up by the bootstraps during her three-year tenure at Oberlin.
Organizations and individuals across campus mourned the loss, when Beverly passed away this Monday after a long illness.

“Beverly had an immediate ability to connect with students,” Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said.

“Rachel had about six full-time jobs,” MRC Community Coordinator Kate Eubank said. “It’s really amazing. She made the Women’s Resource Center a center for everybody.”

Junior Janice Reddick, a member of Voices of Christ, said that Beverly was a strong advocate of equality. “She had her own opinions, but she didn’t do things in a rude way. She supported everyone.”

“People always came by her office without an appointment, that was the type of person she was,” Reddick remembered.

Eubank said that Beverly pushed hard to get the name of the center changed to the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgendered People. “She built that center and made it survive,” Eubank added.

Reddick recalled a time when Beverly had gone to great lengths to help her adjust to Oberlin’s ferocious winters. “I was from Tennessee, I didn’t have a winter coat,” Reddick said. “She went and found a College fund that allowed me to buy one.”

MRC’s Africana Community Coordinator La Trina Jackson said that Beverly expected her staff to treat people with due respect, but also made a point of challenging people who did not respect MRC’s principles and goals.

“She always considered and reconsidered the well-being of her staff,” Jackson said.

Beverly graduated from Wittenburg University in her hometown of Springfield, Ohio. After graduation she joined Earlham College, where she spent a year. She then moved to Hiram College, Ohio and a year later returned to Wittenberg University, where she worked for two years before going on to Wellesley University.

Beverly first came to Oberlin in July 2000 and started her career as Assistant Dean of Students and Director of MRC. In her first year she was appointed advisor to the Women’s Resource Center, and accepted the responsibility of back-up judicial coordinator. She also served on the Dean on Call program for student emergencies.

She was recommended for promotion soon after, and in 2002-2003 she assumed office as Associate Dean of Students.

Beverly viewed helping groups connect as her mission. Part of her respect for students entailed their respect for each other.

“She believed that the best way to accomplish things was to communicate directly and with the respect that is owed to another human being,” Goldsmith said.

Like lots of people who come to Oberlin, Beverly was initially incredulous at some of the things she found, like Safer Sex Night.

“She would laugh and shake her head,” Goldsmith said. “But in time she began to understand them and their place in the community.”
Due to Beverly’s tenure at Oberlin, the MRC is “far stronger, more energetic and imaginative than we’ve ever had in Oberlin College,” Goldsmith stressed.

As late as last year, the MRC was still facing the possibility of closure in the wake of the College’s budget crisis. But Goldsmith and many students feel that it was Beverly’s unwavering determination that kept the center afloat.

“The future of MRC is assured because of Rachel’s magnificent work and the legacy she left behind,” Goldsmith said.

Beverly had been battling breast cancer for several years. Although she could not be in office during this semester, she kept in close contact with the MRC staff, including Dean Kimberly Jackson-Davidson, Goldsmith, and Yeworkwha Belachew, the College Ombudsperson.

“When we talked to her last Friday, we had to keep from talking about work,” Eubank said. “At meetings, we would go into ‘What would Rachel do?’ mode.”

Her mother, Donna Beverly, said that Rachel “had peace in her soul. She loved Oberlin.”

Beverly had strong bonds with virtually every minority campus group, the MRC staff said.

Oberlin students and faculty remember Beverly’s positive outlook. She always stressed balance, La Trina Jackson reflected. “If people went to her office to complain, she would tell them: you can complain for five minutes, then you have to say something good.”