OLGBA makes more headway, achieves goals

Recently, the Oberlin Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alumni Association (OLGBA) announced its sponsorship of two new grants. The awards, the Andy Cemelli Research Grant and the Norm Robertson Prize, are named after two of the original three founders of OLGBA, who died in 1996 and 1992, respectively.

OLGBA was founded in 1989, the end of S. Frederick Starr's presidency. It is the largest LGB alumni group in the country.

The group's goals, as stated in its proposal to the Alumni Association Executive Board, are to "facilitate the relationship between the College and its gay and lesbian alumni, and to increase the visibility of gay and lesbian persons and concerns in the life of the College."

Since then, OLGBA has worked toward both its original goals. According to Midge Brittingham, executive director of the Alumni Association, "They have done a remarkable job with administration . . . improving the life of the students."

Brittingham said OLGBA has worked with the Multicultural Resource Center, the counseling center and admissions, as well as met regularly with President Nancy Dye and Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk.

Things have not always run so smoothly. OLGBA was the first affiliate, or self-supporting, alumni group at Oberlin and one of the first in the country, according to Brittingham, who speaks on the subject of affiliate groups all over the United States. "The whole affiliate group idea has been a good one for the Alumni Association," Brittingham said. However, according to Brittingham, when the idea was first approached, there was a general feeling of discontent about breaking the Alumni Association into splinter groups. Affiliate groups are seen to divide the Alumni Association because they have their own agenda and meet on their own frequently. A committee may have its own agenda also, but is supported by the Association and is therefore more directly tied to it.

On top of that, the group was organized in support of LGB individuals, which some people didn't approve of. "We had some tense times ...tense meetings," Brittingham said.

Peter Nicholson, a current OLGBA co-chair, reiterated the difficulties faced by founders Cemelli, Robertson and Eric Nilson. Starr "tolerated" the LGB community, Nicholson said, but "others would use stronger language."

According to Nilson, LGB alumni were never invited into the Cox Administrative building by Starr.

Nilson said that there was a lot of homophobia on the Board of Trustees in the beginning of the organization and that people were also worried about splintering the alumni. According to him, LGB alumni originally tried to get committee status similar to that of the African American Alumni committee. Nilson said the LGB alumni were denied committee status and that the affiliate group idea was basically created to deal with them.

There were "lots of gut-wrenching meetings about it...lots of tears were shed on all sides...I think we came to a compromise that's very workable for everybody," he said.

In 1989, Andy Cemelli and Martha Shackford were designated the co-chairs of OLGBA, which originally did not have a "B" and was called the Oberlin Gay and Lesbian Alumni. The group sent a proposal, which was eventually accepted, to the executive board of the Alumni Association.

In the years that followed, five other affiliate groups formed using the same proposal format of OLGBA. They were: OCABA (Oberlin bowlers), ADOBIE (disabled alumni), APAA (Asian Pacific alumni), OLAA (Latino/a alumni) and OIAA (international alumni).

The summer of 1994 changed everything for OLGBA and its relation to the administration with the arrival of President Nancy Dye, according to Nicholson. She was "not only supportive of LGB issues, but also extremely knowledgeable," Nicholson said.

Dye invited OLGBA into Cox for their first meeting, an event which Nicholson equated to being invited into the castle after a long siege. "It blew our minds," he said.

Since that first meeting with Dye, Nicholson said there has been an amazing change. Before that, OLGBA was mainly reactive. "Often it was always going in after some sort of incident," he said.

But after Dye arrived, OLGBA members found they could have long-term goals and in general be more proactive. Some goals involve bringing alumni onto campus to talk about being "out" in the workplace and creating an emergency fund for students alienated from their parents after "coming out."

In such cases, Nicholson said, the immediate concern is financial, but students need more than that. They need emotional support. Nicholson discussed the idea of creating a system to bring students and their parents back together.

Other issues OLGBA are working on include "empowering students as much as possible to achieve what they want to achieve," said Nicholson. Part of that empowerment will come from the $30,000 endowment OLGBA is fundraising for things such as the recent research grant and student prize.

They are also talking to career services about LGB information in the workplace and LGB-friendly housing which means jobs and housing that are either staffed by other queers or accepting of them. Other possibilities discussed were Winter Term projects, AIDS and safe sex education and a queer resource book with "everything we can imagine," Nicholson said.

OLGBA is a group established for lesbians, gays and bisexuals, but it is also supportive of heterosexual people, according to Jan Cooper, Associate Professor of Expository Writing. "I, as a straight woman working with these issues, have found [the association] enormously supportive." Cooper is on the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Concerns Committee of the General Faculty and works closely with the eight members of OLGBA's steering committee. Cooper has taught a number of courses with an LGB focus and said that she has "at different times drawn on the resources of [OLGBA]."

OLGBA has also spoken with the counseling center, which college sophomore and co-chair of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Union (LGBU) Andrew LaVallee believes does not meet the needs of queer students very well.

According to LaVallee, Barbara Thomas, who is black, a lesbian and an alumnus, is the only psychologist in the counseling center LGB students really trust. Students request her services more often than other counselors, and she has a three-week waiting list becasue of it.

Thomas said they have been in contact with OLGBA for about two and a half years. She believes they are trying to respond to the fears of LGB students that they will not be able to speak with an LGB sensitive counselor.

LaVallee thinks everyone in the counseling center should be able to address LGB needs, but that they are generally resistant to sensitivity training.

Thomas said the counseling center has a desire to educate itself on LGB issues. This includes an upcoming in-service training. "We really need to let folks know how supportive we are of the LGB community," she said.

LGB students expressed gratitude toward the OLGBA. "I feel really thankful that we have them," LaVallee said. "There aren't a lot of people ... in Oberlin College that will stand up for LGB students."

Katie Howard, a former co-chair of LGBU, said, "In general, I feel like they are a really big resource to LGB students, as well as to the administration."

"The real key to our success . . . ; is our collaboration with everyone on-campus," Nicholson said. He called it a delicate balance between getting involved and knowing when to back off.

Next October, OLGBA plans to have a conference from the 11th to the 13th which will be similar to the Asian American Alliance conference last month. The 11th is also National Coming Out Day and the conference will coincide with LGBU's 25th anniversary. At that time, OLGBA will also be in the throes of its first big fundraising campaign.

OLGBA has also been writing an oral history of gay life at Oberlin, said Brittingham. The book, called Into the Pink: an Oral History of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual students at Oberlin College from 1937 to 1991, is not definitive, she said. It comprises the knowledge of whoever was at the 1991 reunion, she said. It will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

Nicholoson underlined the importance of recording the past. "When you are losing your history to a disease, it gets you thinking," he said. "If we don't do it, no one else is."

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LGB alumni make research awards to students (3/15/96)