The late MRC coordinator Rachel Beverly played a unique and important role in student life at Oberlin, which most people who knew her agree will be impossible to replace. For those who worked with her at the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People, this is turning out to be true.

During her tenure as MRC, director Beverly took on the responsibility of advising the organization, then known simply as the Women’s Resource Center, and worked to make it more effective and accessible to the entire Oberlin community.

Four months after Beverly’s death, the center is almost entirely student-run and struggling with what its staff perceives as a lack of funding and support from the college administration.

“There are a lot of things that we would like to do,” Merle Beam, an ELC board member, said. “But the lack of resources and the fact that all of us have other full-time jobs make it difficult.”

Also, the unique nature of Beverly’s relationship with the ELC makes it extremely unlikely that someone will be hired to replace her.

“A separate director was never created or budgeted,” Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said. “[Associate Dean of Students] Bill Stackman served as the adviser to the MRC until Rachel arrived. Since Bill had taken on an increasing number of responsibilities (including becoming a class dean) and it seemed more appropriate to have the ELC advised by a woman, I asked Rachel if she would be willing to do so. She readily agreed.”

For the time being, Class Dean Kimberly Jackson Davidson is serving as the group’s staff advisor. When asked about her future with the organization she said, “I think that isn’t clear right now.”

The ELC board would like the College to create a position of Program Coordinator but budget constraints make this extremely unlikely.

“We’ve been told that the money will not be made available for this,” Kate Eubank, LGBT Coordinator for the MRC and a member of the ELC board said. “We also understand that the position will not be part of the job of the new MRC Director. This was really too much to ask of Rachel.”

Other planned programs that the Center has had to put on hold include an extension of office hours, a midterm study break and more transgender specific education programming.

Despite the current difficulties work continues at the ELC. Projected programs for the spring include a lecture by noted Feminist Cultural Critic Jacqui Alexander and a mini-course on issues facing indigenous women around the globe today.

The board members are confident about their ability to keep the center running, but have few illusions about finding someone to fill Beverly’s shoes. When asked what qualifications a new coordinator would have to have, Eubank responded without hesitation.

“They just have to be brilliant.”