FUND FOR REUNION/PRINCETON BTGALA
A Non-profit Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Princeton Alumni, Students, Faculty and Staff
P.O. Box 1481, Princeton, New Jersey 08542
| NEWS FROM THE FUND FOR REUNION/PRINCETON BTGALA A Non-profit Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Princeton Alumni, Students, Faculty and Staff P.O. Box 1481, Princeton, New Jersey 08542 |
|
| Volume XX, No. 1 | November, 2006 |
Once again, FFR/Princeton BTGALA had a series of events for LGBT alumni at Reunions.
This year, President Tilghman came to our Friday evening reception, giving the people there an unusual chance for personal interaction with her.
On Saturday we had our annual meeting and reception with a wonderful group of alumni from classes of 1949 through the graduating class of 2006. This was the chance for alumni to hear first hand about the exciting developments at Princeton, including the new post-doctoral fellowship in LGBT studies that we fund and the upcoming opening of the Center which has long been a goal of ours and which rather quickly came to fruition over the past year.
After much back and forth with the University, we were able to have our dance on campus again - having a party that made for a great end to the Reunions weekend!
The opening of the LGBT Center on Thursday, October 12th was a momentous occasion. The ceremony was a well-attended celebration of diversity, with a rainbow arch of balloons welcoming students, faculty, staff and alumni to the event.
Speeches by President Tilghman and Executive Vice President Mark Burstein highlighted the importance the administration places on the quality of LGBT life on campus. "We were named among the top 20 universities in the country for LGBT student life," Tilghman said in her speech, "which was more important to me than our U.S. News ranking."
Kris Kersey '04, former president of the Pride Alliance, gave a moving account of the history of the LGBT Center, the proposal for which Kris guided through to present to President Tilghman in the fall of 2003. Also speaking at the event were Larry Lyons GS, Caitlin Edwards '07 and Paul Pawlowski '07, sharing their thoughts on LGBT student life on campus and the effect the new center will have.
As alumni we are often caught in the past, easily forgetting that things change from year to year with the entry of a few hundred bright new minds. Whatever our collective memories of Princeton, however, I can guarantee you that the future will bear the mark of the Center.
No discussion of LGBT life at Princeton, let alone the LGBT Center, would be complete without a heartfelt thanks to Debbie Bazarsky, the Director of the Center. From her arrival in the fall of 2001, Debbie has expertly guided the development of recourses for LGBT students on campus. The Center is a beautiful testament to the impact she has had, as well as ensuring the longevity of resources, knowledge, and community at Princeton.
If you ever get the chance, do visit the Center to witness the vibrant, colourful, well-equipped space that alumni have had a part in making happen, thanks to a donation of workstations from FFR. If you're a soft Tiger like me, it may just bring a tear to your eye.
For further information, see: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/10/13/news/16192.shtml
and
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/07/50M05/index.xml?section=topstories
This fall, for the first time, the Pride Alliance held its kickoff eventÑan ice cream social open to the entire communityÑin the brand new LGBT Center in Frist. Organizers from the undergraduate LGBT group stopped counting after over 200 students had walked through the door (and spilled out into the hallway), but estimated that about 260 people attended. As Pride Alliance Vice President Thomas Lipp put it, "there were really too many people for us to count. It's the most crowded I've ever seen that event!"
This overwhelming demonstration of support at the beginning of the year has bolstered the efforts of current Pride Alliance officersÑCo-Presidents Luca Nagy '07 and Paul Pawlowski '07, Co-Vice Presidents Thomas Lipp '08 (also Alumni Chair) and Robbie Campos '09 (also Social Chair), Treasurer Amy Paeth '08, Secretary Patrick Benitez '09, Publicity Chair April Johnson '07, Ally Chairs Elissa Frankle '08 and Jen Smith '08, Social Chair Anna Leibowitz '09, and Webmaster Daniel Barrett '08Ñand new participants alike. Several freshmen have already lent their time and strengths to the Pride Alliance, stepping up to take on responsibility for future events such as the Queer Formal. As a result, the Pride Alliance is going into this year with "a much greater sense of purpose and motivation," said Lipp. "There are a lot of new people bringing new energy to the group."
Awareness Week was October 9 through 14 this year; the Pride Alliance co-sponsored several of the week's events. Thanks to a generous donation from FFR, Pride Alliance officers say, 1000 "gay? fine by me" t-shirts were given out for free on Tuesday of that week. These rainbow-colored shirts make visible an overwhelming successful campaign against homophobia: two years ago, 500 of them were given away in just over half an hour, and Pride Alliance officers said that they had no difficulty giving away double that number this year in 90 minutes. Even after all the shirts were gone, students kept stopping by to ask if there were more.
The group sponsored a well-attended Coming Out Day rally on Wednesday; in addition to receiving a pink "Ally" decal to put up in their dorm room windows, everyone who picked up a free t-shirt on Tuesday was asked to wear it to that event.
In the coming months, the Pride Alliance will be working on the second incarnation of the Queer FormalÑnot just a dinner this time around, but (again thanks to FFR) a dance as wellÑwhich Shirley Tilghman has committed to attend if she is available; the All-Ivy Drag Competition, which organizer Paul Pawlowski says is going to be "twice as fabulous as last year"; the Queer Articulations film festival; and initiating dialogue with the Anscombe Society, a student group that focuses on promoting chastity and has recently added a troubling position statement about homosexuality to its website. The Pride Alliance website, which was hacked recently, is being repaired and will be up and running again soon at http://www.princeton.edu/~pride.
One of the Fund for Reunion's principal goals is to support scholarship into GLBT issues at Princeton, with Princeton standards of quality. Since 1987, we have supported 30 students and student groups with scholarships to help them accomplish their academic aims. In three of the last four years we supported three students each year.
My senior thesis was a huge undertaking that required a lot of work... Without this funding, I can't say that I would have accomplished my goals for this project.Scholarship recipients received support for summer internships, senior theses, master's and doctoral dissertations, and post-doctoral support for publication. The disciplines ranged across the liberal arts and Architecture, including English, Psychology, Religion, Sociology and Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures.
--Psychology senior thesis '01
The scholarship...provid[ed] financial assistance as well as feeling that the effort to address the topic [an AIDS hospice] was supported by the Princeton community.The support has been essential to the students being able to complete their work. We provide funds for travel to research sites, interviewing subjects and attending conferences, as well as the nitty-gritty library, copying and research expenses scholars incur.
--Architecture Masters thesis *90
My recollection is that I was in a particularly precarious situation financially. Funding from the FFR helped me spend time...[to] write.A number of the research topics have addressed HIV/AIDS issues, from a Psychology senior thesis examining AIDS/HIV awareness among college students before and after exposure to PWAs, to an Architecture master's thesis designing an AIDS hospice, to a Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures dissertation that considers of how AIDS affects writers in Spanish.
--English senior thesis '90
I was traveling several times a week into New York, doing research that involved some expensive scanning and photo reproduction expenses. The funding from FFR was definitely valuable.The fruits of our support are beginning to appear in print. Sociology scholar David Woolwine *89 published two articles based on the research FFR supported: "Community in Gay Male Experience and Moral Discourse" in the Journal of Homosexuality, and "Gay Moral Discourse: Talking about Identity, Sex, and Commitment" in Studies in Symbolic Interactionism. In doing his research, Woolwine found that "It also helped a great deal that we could tell our interviews that this was supported by the PU gay alumni organization."
--Religion Ph.D. dissertation
The financial support from the FFR enabled me to attend the 10th Annual University of Rhode Island Conference on GLBTQ Issues. Without the FFR support it would have been impossible for me to attend this conference, where I circulated some of the initial ideas that guided the foundation of my dissertation. Presentations of this sort are vital to dissertation projects, as they allow for a debate on the hypotheses discussed on the project.We are very proud of the scholarship FFR has supported. This is one of the high-priority activities we intend to continue. Thanks again for your support of GLBT scholarship at Princeton. You are helping keep Princeton at the forefront of GLBT issues, and supporting quality research.
--Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures Ph.D. dissertation
The newsletter is a chance for you to get to know members of the Fund for Reunion Board of Directors. In this edition, we are featuring Shawn Cowls '87, co-founder with Dick Limoges of Fund for Reunion in 1986, and President of the organization since 1994:
In Shawn Cowls' words:
I grew up in Southern California, and have lived in NYC since 1988. At Princeton I was a math major. In the day job, I sell insurance and help implement financial plans for individuals and small businesses.
When I'm not organizing events for alumni in New York and elsewhere, I like to go to the theater, grow orchids and still play the piano occasionally.
My husband Doug Shapiro and I were wed in the eyes of our family in the Princeton University Chapel this past June!
Your dues pay for all these things, plus FFR's contribution to LGBT life on campus, our social events and our outreach to other Princetonians:
Following is our annual report for our 2005/2006 business year.
| Operating Fund | |
| Opening Balance | $5,962.83 |
| Income | |
| Dues and Contributions | 13,640.00 |
| Events | 1,150.87 |
| Transfer from Endowment | 110,000.00 |
| Expenses | |
| Campus Related Funding | 11,142.50 |
| LGBTQ Lecture Series | 8,000.00 |
| LGBT Fellowship | 90,333.00 |
| Grants | 3,650.00 |
| Newsletter | 1,167.53 |
| Reunions | 4,157.37 |
| Events | 2,495.28 |
| Other Expenses | 298.94 |
| Closing Balance | $9,509.08 |
|
Endowment | |
| Opening Balance | $2,027,780.64 |
| Transfers | (110,000.00) |
| Interest/Dividends | 75,693.68 |
| Gain/Loss | (17,692.94) |
| Closing Balance | $1,975,781.38 |
Notes:
Our business year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Nonendowment expenses were significantly higher this year. Reunions expenses were substantially higher this year as some of the prior year's expenses fell into the current year. Campus-related funding was substantially higher this year due to requests from the student group for a new computer and for funding for a formal event. Scholarships granted were lower than last year but still higher than in prior years.
We consider our operating expenses to be those expenses not designated as endowment expenses, which currently include the fellowship and the lecture series. Our operating shortfall this year was $8,120, significantly higher than last year due to the combined effect of 14% lower dues and event income than last year and a 17% increase in expenses. Income from the endowment was low due to a current more conservative strategy and low interest rates.
Interesting membership tidbits:
Note the following is a special addition for the electronic version of our newsletter edition which did not appear in the printed newsletter.
By Class
The FFR community, including alumni, students, faculty, and staff, grew 12% this year, from 1,091 at this time last year to 1,220. The biggest growth was in the classes from '01 to '05 which as a group grew 26% thanks to the addition of the class of '05. Close behind was the '96 to '00 group which grew 39%! With the exception of the classes of '46 and '52, we have alumni from every class since 1945.
Our oldest alum is from the class of '38. Our largest class is '85 with 43 alumni followed closely by '87 with 37. The class of '64 is a stand out, with 12 alumni, sadly one fewer than last year - the neighboring classes of '63 and '65 have 5 alumni and one alum respectively. Particularly under-represented classes (relative to their neighboring classes) include the class of 1998 with 13 alumni and the class of 1975 with six.
| 1950 and Prior | 9 |
| 1951 - 1955 | 13 |
| 1956 - 1960 | 18 |
| 1961 - 1965 | 27 |
| 1966 - 1970 | 34 |
| 1971 - 1975 | 45 |
| 1976 - 1980 | 86 |
| 1981 - 1985 | 148 |
| 1986 - 1990 | 137 |
| 1991 - 1995 | 115 |
| 1996 - 2000 | 119 |
| 2001 - 2005 | 154 |
| 2006 | 23 |
| Graduate Degrees | 142 |
| Current Students | 107 |
| Faculty and Staff | 43 |
We're from all over the world. We had growth in all regions except Philadelphia. Our NYC and Environs (including Princeton) region remains 41% of our total population. Our fastest growth was in our Philadelphia region, which grew a striking 44%, and our Foreign region, which grew 28%. The New York City and Environs region remains our largest region, and grew a healthy 10% this year.
| Boston | 68 |
| Midwest | 68 |
| New York City and Environs | 497 |
| Northern California | 112 |
| Philadelphia | 49 |
| South | 95 |
| Southern California | 90 |
| Washington, DC | 79 |
| Other US | 89 |
| Foreign | 73 |
Our gender ratio improved for women this year. Women continue to grow as a percentage of our total population, now making up 29% of our population. Our transgendered population remains very small, but is now approaching 1% of our population.
| Female | 354 |
| Male | 856 |
| Trans | 10 |
The percentage of folks who have paid dues in the past two years is 24%, about the same as last year. More than half of us have never paid dues. Help us increase this number this year!
| Membership through 2005 or 2006.. | 292 |
| Membership prior to 2005 | 234 |
| Never Paid Dues | 694 |
We are very proud that we could work with the University's Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts to create what we understand to be the world's first Fellowship in LGBT Studies in a liberal arts context. In addition to taking the initiative on this, FFR has committed more than $250,000 to the University over three years to make it happen. During 2004-5 we made the first installment on this commitment.
But that's not all. Over the last year, FFR has also used your dollars to:
... not to mention our outrageous Reunions parties, FFR Goes to the Opera in New York, and parties and events in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Washington! Hey, alumni need to have fun, too!
Your contributions make this happen. Please re-up for 2005-2006. This year's contributions will help FFR fund the second installment of our commitment to the Fellowship in LGBT Studies, continue helping students with scholarships, and ensure that the LGBT lecture series keeps the campus informed of current issues. Click here at http://alumni.princeton.edu/~ffr-gala/contact.html to find out more information about paying becoming a dues paying member of the Fund for Reunion/Princeton BTGALA.
Thank you again! Your contributions make Princeton a better place for everyone.
Contacting Us: We can be reached at:
Fund for Reunion/Princeton BTGALA, P. O. Box 1481, Princeton, NJ 08542
For faster response, send e-mail to
Fund for Reunion
You can sign up for FFR/Princeton BTGALA using our mail form.
This document was last modified on January 8, 2006..