lbgt@MIT strives to create a more inclusive and welcoming campus community for lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, questioning and friendly individuals with a primary focus on students.

lbgt@MIT aims to realize the above mission statement through the achievement of four goals:

1. Ensure appropriate resources are readily available;
2. Foster campus-wide dialogue;
3. Enable opportunities to celebrate our community; and
4. Encourage participation and collaboration.

Reflecting the progress of the past few years, this year began with evaluation of the mission of lbgt@MIT and a revision of our four primary goals. Over the past school year, we have worked in collaboration with the LBGT Issues Group, the various student groups, staff, and alumni in an effort to achieve these goals.

This report begins with a brief history (or herstory) of LBGT support at MIT. It then describes our major accomplishments towards each of our four primary goals over the past year, summarizes the activities of some of our partners, defines some of the barriers in achieving our goals, and concludes with a prospectus of lbgt@MIT’s initiatives for the upcoming year.

Before we begin, we'd like to take a moment to thank Dania Palanker, this year's Graduate Assistant, for all of her effort, enthusiasm, and creativity. Without her energy, much of the progress towards the realization of our mission over the past year would not have been possible.

MIT was one of the first institutions of higher learning to have an LBGT student group. What is today known as GaMIT began as the Student Homophile League in 1969. Since then, LBGT support continued to be voluntary and informal until the fall of 1996.

In 1996, John Kellett '47 for his 50^th reunion gift committed to providing $100,000 to support BGALA and LBGT programs at MIT over the next five years. With the support of Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education Rosalind Williams, the LBGT Issues Group was formed that fall. Originally composed of fourteen staff and faculty members -- gay, lesbian, and straight -- the Issues Group soon added student members. The Group spent most of the first year educating itself about LBGT issues and evaluating needs on campus. The Issues Group evolved into an umbrella group of MIT's LBGT student groups and departments committed to providing support.

Over the next few years, the efforts of the Issues Group and its partners made significant progress towards the creation of a more welcoming environment at MIT. In 1997 the Group published the first Lavender Guide; developed dialog with the ROTC Task Force Implementation Team, ultimately concluding that the two groups could not work together; and began to offer grants to fund student activities and co-sponsor campus events, beginning with Orientation. The Issues Group later supported the renovation of the GaMIT Lounge and assumed responsibility for coordinating the Rainbow Reception. A recent initiative was the proposal (not yet adopted) to the administration to amend MIT's non-discrimination policy to include prohibition of discrimination based on gender identity.

Approved donation of Dean's Office staff time was and remains crucial to the progress of LBGT support services at MIT. In 1998, RLSLP created a graduate internship to provide specific and paid support to advising LBGT student groups and coordinating implementation of Issues Group initiatives. This first internship resulted in the development of the "You are Welcome Here" Campaign. That role has since been expanded, with the support of John Kellett, to a part-time graduate assistant position. The combination of the graduate assistantship, the approved donation of staff time within Residential Life and Student Life Programs, and the development of a logo to represent MIT's diverse services, resulted in the creation of lbgt@MIT, a program within RLSLP to provide staff support and coordination to diverse efforts across MIT.

This section details the significant activities of lbgt@MIT over the past year towards the accomplishment of our four primary goals.

Below are new initiatives or significant accomplishments of the past year, in addition to continuing ongoing programs and services. These ongoing programs include: events and activities during undergraduate Orientation; production of the fourth Lavender Guide; and distribution of our monthly e-mail newsletter.

• Career Resources: Communication and collaboration with Career Services has culminated in the creation of a listing of resources for LBGT students entering the workforce.

• GLBT Employee Discussion Group: Through collaborations with GABLES and our office, the Mental Health Service of MIT Medical began a GLBT Employee Discussion Group. Prior communication from lbgt@MIT was instrumental in the initiation of this service.

• Living Pink Guide: The Sexual Identity Committee of Orientation and RLSLP worked together to produce this year’s Living Pink Guide, to assist first-year students in selecting supportive living environments. Three on-campus residence halls, three fraternities, four sororities, and all six independent living groups chose to participate, marking a slight decline from the previous year.

• Mentoring Program: The Issues Group formed a committee to create a mentoring program aimed at matching students with alumni, faculty or staff who can act as a resource for living as an LBGT adult. The project is still in its preliminary stages.

• Resource Library The Undergraduate Association contributed $2,700 to FAQS and GaMIT for the creation of an LBGT Resource Library. Planning is currently underway.

Over the past year, we have provided forums for dialogue and increased the physical presence of the LBGT community at MIT in an attempt to foster dialogue throughout the campus. Our major accomplishments towards this goal are described below.

• Coming Out Week: This year’s activities included a Coming Out Support Group Meeting, our annual Rainbow Reception to which all MIT faculty receive an invitation, a GaMIT Study Break, and a MIT-Harvard Barbecue. The Tech ran a two-page spread that included anonymous columns by two LBGT students on their experiences at MIT.

• Education Campaign: The Issues Group formed an education committee aimed raising awareness. The committee’s work culminated in an awareness poster campaign featuring photographs of LBGT and supportive members of the MIT community. Several dozen positive feedback e-mails were received; only one vandalism was reported.

• SpeakOut Training: In October, MIT hosted the annual SpeakOut volunteer training. The training served as a physical presence of LBGT issues on campus for an entire weekend, and also helped an organization that promotes dialogue throughout the Boston area.

• ToBGLAD: The weather forced us to cancel and postpone many of our originally scheduled events. One of the rescheduled events was a panel discussion of students speaking about their experiences being gay, lesbian, or bisexual at MIT.

Almost all of our programs and services contain some degree of celebration. Below are new or significant accomplishments targeted at celebrating our community. In addition, we held our fourth annual Ice Cream Social to kick-off the spring term.

• John S. W. Kellett '47 Award: We had the honor this year of creating a new Institute Award that both recognizes the importance of our work and honors John Kellett. This award recognizes an individual or group for an exceptional commitment to creating a welcoming environment at MIT, including, but not limited to, improving the experience of lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, and questioning (LBGT) individuals. This Award, and its recipients, honor the "Importance of Diversity," identified by the Task Force on Student Life and Learning as one of the 11 principles that define MIT. John Kellett was the first recipient.

• Lavender Graduation: We created a new tradition this spring by co-hosting a Lavender Graduation Reception with BGALA (Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alumni). Three graduates of nine identified were honored at the reception, as was John Kellett.

• SpeakOut TV: In February, two MIT discussed being LBGT at MIT on SpeakOut TV, a live call-in TV show on Boston cable that discusses issues of relevance to the LBGT community.

Participation of other individuals and organizations makes most of the achievements of lbgt@MIT possible. There was a strong focus this year on increasing participation of members of the community and collaborating with new partners.

• Advising Student Groups: By providing guidance, resources and funding to student groups, lbgt@MIT is able to encourage more student activity. This year, lbgt@MIT provided resources and advice to GaMIT in producing the Fierce Forever drag show, assisted the Rainbow Coffeehouse in advertising the Queer As Folk Festival, and provided advice to FAQS as they restructured and reemerged in the spring semester.

• Building Relationships with Other Local Universities: Working with local universities was a new initiative in the fall term. A partnership with Harvard began with the planning of the MIT-Harvard barbecue during Coming Out Week. This partnership lead to the Rainbow Coffeehouse working with members of Harvard University and Tufts University on a three day Queer as Folk Festival.

• LBGT Issues Group: The LBGT Issues Group formed three new committees for this year–assessment of services, education, and mentoring. These committees enabled participation of new members and a targeted focus on accomplishing the revised mission and goals for the Issues Group and lbgt@MIT.

• "You Are Welcome Here" Campaign: We have continued to promote the "You Are Welcome Here" Campaign. Invitations to participate in the Campaign were sent to all new faculty, staff, and Graduate Resident Tutors. A total of 67 new staff and faculty responded that they had posted the cards.

The work of many organizations and volunteers is needed to create a welcoming environment for the LBGT community at MIT. Below are some of their major activities this year.

• BGALA (Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Alumni): BGALA held many events for current alumni and to help students at MIT. BGALA met monthly with either lunch or dinner meetings. During IAP, they sponsored a panel entitled "Openly Gay after Graduation." At the end of the year, BGALA helped with the transition from student to alumni for graduation students by co-sponsoring the Lavender Graduation and hosting a new alumni dinner.

• FAQS (Friendly Alliance of Queers and Straights): At the end of March, new officers were elected to FAQS and new energy was put into the group. Following the elections, FAQS held a couple of dinner social events and a Thursday night clubbing event. Control of the e-mail list was transferred to the president, so that the list could be more regularly updated. The group ran two half-page ads in the Tech in the beginning of May and inserted an ad in the Student Activities Directory in an attempt to increase membership.

• GaMIT (Gay at MIT): GaMIT continued to host the Coming Out Support Group in the GaMIT lounge bi-weekly for most of the academic year. There were a few social events throughout the year, including study breaks and film showings. In February, GaMIT had petition signing for Freedom to Marry Day. A large drag show, Fierce Forever 4, was produced in April to an enthusiastic and almost sold-out crowd.

• MIT Program in Women's Studies: Women's Studies held many events (talks, film screenings, slam poetry competitions) during the academic year where sexual orientation and identity were explored. Two cosponsored highlights were the world premiere of "Tres Vidas" chamber music theater and the workshop of Theater Arts Professor Thomas DeFrantz's new theater piece "Queer Theory: A Musical Travesty." While the majority of Women's Studies classes include LBGT topics, several study sexuality explicitly: "Forms of Desire: Lesbian and Gay Literature;" "Gender, Sexuality and Popular Culture;" and "Gender, Sexuality and Society."

• MIT Rainbow Coffeehouse: At the start of the year, the GLBT Graduate Student Coffeehouse became officially known as the MIT Rainbow Coffeehouse. Every month, students from MIT and the local area gathered for coffee, ice cream or other treats at a Rainbow Coffeehouse event. The coffeehouse also sponsored a three-day festival leading up to the Showtime premiere of Queer as Folk, in conjunction with Harvard and Tufts.

• SloanLGBT: Throughout the fall, SloanLGBT had a number of recruiting activities with consulting and banking firms including Boston Consulting Group, Bain, McKinsey, Deloitte Consulting, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. The group helped plan a panel entitled "The Entrepreneurial Spirit" for the 3^rd Annual Reaching Out Conference in San Francisco. The group also organized numerous social activities, including bi-weekly lunches and monthly happy hours.

Since 1996, primary financial resources for LBGT programs and services were provided by John S. W. Kellett '47, whose $100,000 pledge to MIT and BGALA is now complete. This past year, RLSLP continued to increase its financial support of our programs and services. With the completion of John Kellett's support, the Office of the Dean for Student Life has committed to institutionalizing financial support for lbgt@MIT.

The Lavender Guide continues to be a collaborative effort. This year the Guide was made possible by the support of Counseling and Support Services, the Graduate Students' Office, the Health Education Service of MIT Medical, Orientation '00, and the Sloan MBA Program. Orientation continued to fund and support the Sexual Identity Subcommittee of Orientation.

As lbgt@MIT and its partners continue to move towards the realization of our mission, we seek to further define the barriers that exist to reaching our next level of service.

• Faculty Participation: Faculty participation in the Issues Group, our programs, and our services is minimal. Few faculty are out, and thus there is a lack of faculty role models and support. This raises concerns about student ability to communicate issues to faculty and produces barriers to getting effective academic support. Faculty report that the faculty environment at MIT is not supportive of their orientation.

• Being Outside our Communication Loop: Our services and programs continue to rely heavily on existing formal and informal communication channels. Many individuals do not have communication channels that lead to MIT services or programs, particularly graduate students and those individuals who are questioning or coming out. Also, many feel they get their support elsewhere and choose not to be part of the communication loop. There are also questions regarding how this will shift with the change in residence selection in 2002; as it is now, many students find their "niche" of support during orientation recruitment.

• Time and Competing Priorities: The more students provide the energy and initiative behind LBGT services, the more successful they will be. However, LBGT students typically face additional stress, particularly related to coming out, which makes it problematic to rely solely on their efforts. Beyond the graduate assistant, which has been a very successful program but has limitations, staff time and energy is either voluntary or situational. In many cases, if the particular individual left their position, such as the Assistant Director of Student Life Programs and the Coordinator of Women's Studies, services and support could be effected significantly.

• The Centralization Balance: Some of the strengths of MIT's LBGT services are their variety and diversity. Having allies and efforts across campus are crucial to realizing our mission; however, there is also a need for centralized direction, consistency, and continued initiative, particularly as a means of identifying areas where services and programs are lacking. It is also a barrier to collaboration because interaction among the various support groups and services is sporadic. This balance needs to be explored, both in terms of space and staffing.

In addition to continuing to develop, evaluate, and improve our current programs and services, there are a variety of initiatives or issues that lbgt@MIT will be working on this coming year.

• Work with Admissions and Orientation: We plan to work with admissions and the orientation committee to devise programs that more thoughtfully introduce LBGT students to MIT. This is particularly important as we approach the change in residence selection in 2002; many LBGT students consciously seek supportive environments through the current selection process.

• Complete Assessment of Services: In January, the LBGT Issues Group began an assessment of services provided to the LBGT community at MIT using professional and state standards. Through the upcoming academic year, provided appropriate staffing is available, this assessment will be completed. Part of this assessment must include an evaluation of the level of staffing required to maintain and improve the current level of service.

• Improve Relationships with Student Groups: Students are the center of our efforts and services. We hope to work throughout next year to build stronger relationships with student groups, and through those relationships assist the organizations in reaching out to the student body and increasing membership and student involvement.