A gathering of more than 50 people in Sanborn Library's Wren Room greeted the official announcement of Dartmouth's acceptance of $250,000 for the improvement of campus conditions for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students yesterday afternoon.
The assets have been managed for the past 15 years under the off-campus Edward Carpenter Memorial Foundation after the College rejected three offers by the fund's benefactor, the late Dr. Ralph Elias '32, in the early 1980s.
The previous donation attempts were declined because "the College, then still defining its policies on sexual minorities, felt unable to accept money so specifically designated," according to the event's program.
The fund initially struggled to gain official acceptance by the College, due to the reigning attitudes of "homophobia and heterosexism" during those years, English professor and Carpenter Trustee Peter Saccio said.
Turning the funds over to the College represents the latest milestone in an on-going fight to improve GLBT conditions at Dartmouth, Coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Advocacy and Programming, Pam Misener said.
This latest step toward equality has been the culmination of an unprecedented decade of progress, and "echoes the development of society in general," Saccio said.
College President James Wright, who was on hand to accept the donation, said, "Much really has happened this past decade."
"But the process can never be complete, we're meeting the challenge to bring policy and practice closer together, but we still need to keep our aspirations ahead of reality," Wright said.
Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Humanities Barry Scherr also attended the ceremony and spoke briefly to elaborate on how the money might be spent.
Scherr said that half of the sum would be under his direction as dean and would be dedicated to Dartmouth's ideals of teaching. "We want to use [the money] to fund one regular course in gay and lesbian studies," Scherr said.
This course would most likely be a revision of a current "College Course," and titled Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies, and would become a semi-annual fixture in the Women's Studies Department, alternated with a more in-depth course of a similar nature, Scherr said.
This academic expansion follows in the College's desire to enhance the scholastic options for all students interested in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies and could be expanded to include more classes of detailed study and possibly a minor, Scherr said.
The other half of the fund will be controlled by the Dean of the College, and will be more geared towards social purposes hosted by such organizations as the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance and the Gay Straight Alliance, Misener said.
Misener is also optimistic that the full recognition of this sexuality-specific endowment may have a positive impact on gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender alumni estranged from the College.
"LBGT alumni should rally behind this development in order to reconnect to Dartmouth," Misener said.
"The key here is for the entire Dartmouth community as a whole to think more inclusively," she said.
Though this is an important step to realizing a better community for GLBT students at Dartmouth, Misener said, "heterosexism and homophobia still exist here and we've still got a lot of work to do."
