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News Flash!
The Fund for Reunion, Inc. is extremely proud to announce that our endowment ended our fiscal year 1999/2000 at $729,000. At this date that value has slid back down to $709,000, still way ahead from where we were a year ago. Heads turned at the last Alumni Council meeting when we announced that we were close to $300,000, so we are very excited about announcing our current level to the University.

Endowment Hopes no Longer Just a Dream
For many years, FFR has hoped to ultimately do great things. Mind you, our accomplishments have been many and have had a significant impact on Princeton University, resulting in a better experience for LGBT students and alumni. But our larger goals of supporting lesbian and gay scholarship and a campus cultural center have remained untouched, aside from small grants given to support LGBT thesis research and our encouragement to include more LGBT content in existing courses.
Suddenly we are in a position to think seriously about our larger ideals. Our current estimate of the cost of endowing a chair at Princeton is around $2 million; no longer terribly far away. With the presence of such an endowment we will be under increased pressure from various quarters to spend the money.
We are entertaining ideas on how to best use our endowment, knowing that an endeavor of serious nature will take time to develop and to sell to Princeton. At present our favorite ideas are endowing a professorship or starting a center for LGBT studies. We have discussed setting up a pool of financial aid, but ultimately felt that it would benefit too few people.
Our ideas are as yet unformed. As we work on them, we will update you. In the coming two years, we hope to present to you concrete proposals that are likely to elicit the cooperation of Princeton University. In the meantime, we welcome suggestions, either related to these two notions or on a completely different one, and encourage the more academic minded among you to volunteer to help form proposals.
Thanks Brandon!
Brandon Fradd '83 has managed our endowment for the past three years. Brandon manages a biotech hedge fund - technically a private limited partnership. Hedge funds are subject to very significant fluctuations, so federal law restricts these funds to corporations and individuals who meet minimum income and asset requirements (way beyond the level of the average individual). Our endowment is invested in parallel with this fund.
Brandon's careful execution of a strategy focused on biotechnology companies allowed us to reap the very large surge in this industry while suffering little of the backslide very much in evidence this past spring. At the time of writing this article, our endowment is sitting at $709,000, down slightly from it's peak. Our investment strategy has been aggressive and as a result we have seen some fluctuations. Overall, the results have been brilliant and we thank Brandon for his work on behalf of the Fund for Reunion.
Securities are held in trust by Bank of America's brokerage operation Prime Broker at the direction of Brandon Fradd. The following graph shows our results for the past four years. As I have stated each year, there is no guarantee that future performance will match past performance.

1999/2000 Financial Report

It's that time again when we plead, encourage, and generally cajole all you folks for dues. In light of our wonderful endowment results, you may think that we don't need the money, but that wouldn't be true. Our endowment is kept separate from our operating funds and we do not use it for our everyday expenses. Those expenses are met through your annual contributions. We hope that you will continue to support all of the work we do. Whatever pleases you most about us: communications about the University, reunions events, social gatherings, our support of the student organizations, our work with the University for greater acceptance of LGBT alumni and students, these things are supported out of our operating fund and these is funded with your contributions. Please renew your membership with a contribution!

Please make check payable to the Fund for Reunion, Inc. and mail to: The Fund for Reunion, Inc.
P.O. Box 1481
Princeton, NJ 08542
Yes, I want to support The Fund for Reunion!

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E-Briefs

TigerNet - Gotta Join!

TigerNet, a service of the Alumni Council, offers discussion groups, permanent e-mail addresses, online courses, and a directory of classmates to Princeton alumni. If you have access to the Internet, point your browser to http://tigernet.princeton.edu. Click on the button labeled "I'm a first-time user" and follow the directions. You will need your alumni records id-number, which you can find on the second line of your PAW mailing label or you can get by sending an e-mail request to pubcon@alumni.princeton.edu.
Once you have enrolled, you will have a permanent e-mail address with Princeton - mail can be forwarded from this address to other addresses you have, or you can access it directly with your e-mail program.
Another service that has generated a lot of activity are the discussion groups. These are networks of users that communicate with each other via the Princeton server ("Listservs" to the e-literate). You send a note to the main address and everyone in the group gets a copy of that note. Discussion groups already active include the Career-Networking, Parent-Net, Nonprofit-Resources, and one of the more recent Pride-Net, a forum for discussion, networking, research, and advocacy of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues.

Pride-Net - Our forum!

Pride-Net was established and is managed by new FFR Board member Marcus Tye '90 and student Daniel Weitz '01. Topics have been wide ranging from the serious to the less so. Whether it's biological determinism, pitching in your 2 cents on circuit parties, or finding out about the latest lesbian party, Pride-Net is a way to engage in lively discussions with the Princeton community. In addition, we are hoping that the networking opportunities of the forum will be taken advantage of.
Currently the Pride-Net community and the FFR community overlap but are distinct. We strongly encourage all of you to enroll in this vital service.
Questions about Pride-Net or Tiger-Net? E-mail Marcus Tye '90, tye@alumni.princeton.edu, or Daniel Weitz '01, danweitz@Princeton.edu.

On Campus - Nick Setteducato, Princeton's new LGBT Coordinator

FFR congratulates Nick Setteducato on his recent appointment to the LGBT Coordinator post. During the first Freshman Orientation Week in his new role, Nick managed to steal a few moments to talk to FFR about himself and his plans.

What are your plans for the year as the new LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered) Student Coordinator?
I think my goal is to help increase visibility and awareness of, and sensitivity to, LGBT issues. That is an educational, political and social goal, and aims to reach all students, both queer and non-queer, tolerant and not tolerant. For LGBT students, I hope to mass market available resources and expand the numbers and types of resources available. One step towards this is the brainchild of the QSA (Queer Student Alliance). In an effort to provide a more continuous LGBT safe and friendly space, the students renamed the Pride Alliance office the Princeton Pride Center. They hope to offer regular officer and coordinator office hours. General visibility campaigns such as random posterings and attendance of the Pride Alliance members and myself at the events of other organizations can also help to foster an LGBT inclusive community.
For the general community, I fully support programs such as the LGBT Peer Educators. It is important to bring LGBT issues to a level where all students can be sensitive to them. I've begun meeting with directors and representatives of offices such as the Women's Center and Religious Life to discuss joint events throughout the year. By focusing on our commonalities, we can "normalize" queerness and destroy assumptions that already exist.

Tell us about your experience.
I've been involved in community-based non-profit organizing for eight years now. I began working with sexual health issues, including HIV/AIDS education, and in the past few years have moved to queer organizing. The most influential experience was the time I spent as an associate in the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) a non-profit, national organization. I worked on a number of projects, and had involvement with development and communications for GLSEN. I researched an article on the effects of internet filtering software on queer youth for a national report sponsored by GLAAD. Having been an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, I feel that I have had a very similar experience to many of the students here at Princeton. My ability to empathize with the pressure and social climate of such an institution will be a great asset.

What are the most difficult challenges you face?
I'm not really sure at this point. Some people say that religious opposition is a problem; others feel that the highly homophobic athletic culture will be my biggest challenge. I feel my biggest challenge will be the over-arching sense of apathy exhibited by the student body. It will be difficult to rally support on the issues I feel need to be addressed with students consumed with their own lives. There are ways to address homophobia, but garnering the support of students who have their own agenda presents another problem.

What activities are already planned?
Tonight is the Annual Pride Alliance Ice Cream Social, welcoming new and old students to campus. Tuesday, September 19, I am organizing a reception for Queer Grad Students. Next week our regularly scheduled men's and women's discussion groups begin. We are just starting plans for Awareness Week, surrounding National Coming Out Day. I've only been in the office for a few short weeks, much of which has been taken up by orientation and the various trainings I have had to conduct. Now that students are getting settled into the new school year, I can concentrate more on the programming aspects of my position.

How can LGBT Princeton alumni help you accomplish your mission?
Alums can help support my mission in MANY ways. The most obvious is financial support. It is often difficult to acquire funds through the university to meet the needs of LGBT students. Money is always available for a speaker or educational workshop, but needs such as a clean, well-maintained, gay space are unmet. Funding for social programs, or other less academic programming are not the priority of the University. These needs are just as important, yet lack the acknowledgement they deserve.
Alums are also the best resource for addressing what happens to gay students once they leave Princeton. Perhaps a mentor program can be started. We could pair upperclassmen with an alum or grad student in their field of interest in order to help negotiate the transition from gay student to gay professional/grad student. Grad students and alums are ALWAYS welcome at any event planned by the undergraduate students. I think that there is often a distance that is created on personal levels, when none should exist. We are one community here, and should not be separated by characteristics such as age. I'd love to hear what students and alumni feel can be done to forge stronger ties.

Are you in touch with your counterparts at other Ivy League institutions?
I do communicate with my counterparts at Penn. Bob Schoenberg and Erin Cross of Penn's LGBT Center, are good friends and wonderful mentors. I credit them with a lot of my development as a young gay activist over the past 3 years. Bob was hired by Princeton some time ago to conduct a needs assessment, and he will remain a valuable resource. Through Bob, I will be taking a seat on the National Consortium for Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education, as Ryan did before me. This will be an opportunity for me to network with colleagues all around the country, not just Ivy League institutions. I do hope to network with local universities. I feel there is much to gain from students and administrators dealing with queer organizing at schools in the NJ, NY, PA area.

On Our Minds - Election 2000

by Shawn Cowls '87
Once again, I want to take a moment to talk about something outside of the Princeton sphere. November is rapidly approaching and with it an opportunity to exercise our right to vote. Voting is a right that sets us apart from so many other countries from so long. While the number of countries where citizens do not have the right do vote is diminishing, it is still hard to find a country where the vote is so respected and can accomplish so much.
Yet so many Americans do not vote. Either they assume that the outcome is predetermined, or they feel their vote doesn't count, or they can not see a real difference between the candidates. The truth this fall is that we have two very different candidates running for President. Our votes, or lack of them, could have ramifications for years to come on issues as basic and accepted as women's right to choose or issues far more cutting edge like the right for gay men or lesbians to marry each other or get citizenship for the foreign born partners.
I wouldn't presume to tell you how to vote, but I beg you to not only get out there and vote, but to encourage everyone you know to do so. Let's make this year's electoral turnout one of the best ever, or at least one of the best LGBT turnouts ever!

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