LGB and Admissions strive for closer relationship

Through new efforts, animosity of past appears to be disappearing

The relationship between the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community and the Office of Admissions has improved from what it was just a couple of years ago, according to people who have worked toward such an end.

"The [relationship], I know, has been a piece of campus culture for a number of years," said Director of Admissions Debra Chermonte. "I like to think we're beyond that."

People agree that in the past the relationship between the Office of Admissions and the LGB community was more hostile. Professor of History Clayton Koppes, chair of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Committee, said, "Some years ago there was some hostility from Admissions and the administration .... [They] saw the LGB community as an impediment to student recruitment. That was demeaning and insulting and in violation of the Oberlin nondiscrimination policy."

Chermonte said that as director of admissions she has personally been concerned with improving the relationship between the LGB community and Admissions. She said, "I'm very much opposed to the impression that the Admissions Office would not be advocates of bringing LGB students to campus. Our job is to recruit a wide variety of students."

This year, a new information sheet, written by senior admissions intern Mike Murphy and Professor of History Clayton Koppes, chair of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Committee, provides prospective students with a sense of what life is like, socially and academically, for LGB students at Oberlin. The information sheet is available in the Office of Admissions and Chermonte said prospectives are taking copies.

This is only the second year an information sheet has been available, Murphy said. Last year's information sheet, he said, was a xeroxed copy, but the new information sheet is printed on the same paper as the other department fact sheets.

Koppes considers the new information sheet an improvement upon the old for several reasons. He said he felt the old sheet downplayed the opportunities available in queer studies at Oberlin. "It is important to let LGB students know there is a social and academic side [to LGB life]," Koppes said.

He also said that the new information sheet stresses the faculty, counseling and Student Life resources available to LGB students, while the old one did not.

The new information sheet contains quotes from students, faculty and alums concerning the Oberlin LGB community. Koppes said the old sheet contained student quotes only and that, in redesigning the sheet, he wanted to provide quotes from a diversity of sources.

The Office of Admissions, Koppes said, has been "very cooperative."

Another Admissions project in the works, spearheaded by Murphy, is to identify and compile a list of high schools with LGB organizations and community organizations geared toward LGB high school students. Admissions will send these organizations information about Oberlin. "It's more of an educational program," Chris Lucak, assistant director of admissions, said. "It's exposing more people to what this place is about."

Murphy said he developed an "alternative recruitment plan" for LGB students because LGB students can't be targeted in the same ways that other students are.

Murphy said it has been his experience while working in the Office of Admissions that the office is open to talking about the LGB community with prospectives. But, Murphy said, the LGB community is discussed by Admissions in a form of dialogue that is foreign on campus, and people misunderstand the intentions of Admissions.

For example, at Oberlin the word queer is used comfortably to designate the LGB community, Chermonte said. But, "[Admissions] needs to have sensitivity to the fact that [queer] is not used as comfortably everywhere in the world ... We have to be responsible to other individuals." So when queer is used on the information sheet, its usage is explained.

Murphy said that one thing the Office of Admissions needs to do is continue working on creating a dialogue with the LGB community here. "Tensions from the past tend to linger," he said.

In the past, the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Union (LGBU) reacted to the Office of Admissions and the administration's hostility by scheduling Pride Week to coincide with All Roads, the Office of Admissions' most massive recruiting drive. Also in response to the hostility, the all-campus chalkings were born. "We made our own publicity," sophomore Ian Sherman said.

This year was All Roads 10th year. Koppes said that he cannot remember a year when All Roads and Pride Week did not coincide.

In a change from only a couple years ago, copies of the Pride Week schedule are prominently displayed in the Office of Admissions front lobby.

Chalkings used to be more graphic than they are today, Sherman said. Chermonte said that Admissions discussed chalkings with members of the LGB community. "In general, we were hoping to get to the point where the chalkings were messages of welcome rather than done for the sake of alarm," Chermonte said.

Sherman said that the chalkings were toned down when the Office of Admissions began providing prospectives with more information about the LGB community. He said that Admissions agreed to make more information available if the chalkings were less graphic. "[Admissions] started providing more info because they were freaking out about the chalkings," Sherman said.

Sherman said he thinks Admissions is afraid the LGB community's presence is going to upset prospectives. "If they're going to be upset by [the LGB presence], then this is probably not the school for them," Sherman said.

Senior Josh Powers agreed. He said that he thinks Admissions feels that the "visibility of the queer community hurts the Admissions Office and makes people not want to come here."

But this year, Koppes said, great strides have been made in improving the relationship between Admissions and the LGB community. He said that he expects such strides to continue. "It's been an evolution," Chermonte said.

Koppes said, "It is my view that whenever the background is bad, the relationship takes a while to overcome that."