During the past four years at Ohio University I have spent a great deal of time around the campus and tried to do as many things as the university offered me. This year I joined the Jitterbug Club and learned how to swing dance with Devin and Josh. Devin and I learned that she is a good baker and I am an all right cook. (I even started Beanhat based on that conclusion.)
Four years ago I joined Speakeasy Magazine as a staff writer and spent my senior year as the editor-in-chief. I played racquetball at the Ping Center and sat with my feet in a baby pool at Jake-fest. All around a pretty great four years.
For my final quarter at OU Devin and I decided to take a class together. I needed English credits and she is an English Major. It worked out rather well. The class that best fit our schedules and seemed to be the most interested was Professor Sherrie Gradin’s “Gay and Lesbian Literature.” Seemed like an interesting class.
I went and met Professor Gradin at the end of last quarter because I needed an independent study to complete my Journalism specialization. More on that some other time. She was happy to help. We discussed some possible projects and decided the best option would be an article on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) community. I had attended the Ohio University Budget hearings last quarter and knew that departments such as the LGBT Center would be suffering some cuts, but I didn’t know much else. That fact disturbed me a bit, as I have friends that who are gay and I know people who are involved in LGBT activities. I was the editor-in-chief of a news and culture website, and yet my knowledge was lacking at best.
Two weeks into the quarter I had been reading Kate Bornstein’s “My Gender Workbook” and listening to the discussions in the class when I realized that the article was going to be a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. For the first time since possibly my sophomore year in computer programming I felt like I had no idea what was going on. There was no way I was going to walk into the LGBT Center and ask for an interview when I had no idea what was going in the LGBT communities. At that point I still referred to it as the LGBT community.
I waited about five weeks total before I felt I was comfortable enough to actually seek out some interviews. I had listened to and spoken to some people involved in LGBT activities on campus, and the class had been enlightening to say the least. I contacted Mickey Hart, the man in charge of the LGBT Center, and the people at the Women’s Center. The Women’s Center turned me down for an interview because their schedule was apparently booked solid. Mickey got back to me after a bit of confusion and emails getting lost in the ether. He was happy to talk to me.
During my first talk with him we discussed the center, what it does and why it does it. We talked about the programming that he puts on. Programs such as the Safe Zones, a two hour training course for people to help them understand and appreciate the LGBT communities, and Faces of Pride, the posters up around campus displaying out people and allies.
We discussed the fact that he does his very best to serve everyone in the communities and OU. The out people and the closeted people who are terrified of them, he said. When I asked him how much people know about the center, lamenting my unsatisfactory understanding, he said “People get a basic understanding (of the LGBT center) and don’t have a reason to look deeper.”
We also discussed that he is the only full-time employee in the center. There are student employees, but without Mickey the center would not be able to function. The LGBT center is also the only LGBT support group that is officially supported by OU; the other communities, such as Ally and Open Doors, are student organizations and depend on SAC funding rather than a budget. Mickey does his best to support the members of the communities, but the coming budget cuts are going to make that harder for him. Starting this 2010-2011 academic year he will be put on an 11 month contract, as will many other people in different departments. While his situation is not unique in that respect, remember that he is the only full-time employee. During the time that he is not permitted to work the center will have to be closed. That means that OU will officially not have an LGBT center for that time.
Granted, there are the other student groups on campus and a number of groups in the Athens community, but Mickey is not sure what will happen during that time. Right now he is trying to figure out whether or not OU will let him take Fridays off rather than a month at a time during the summer.
I had attended the budget hearings, and somehow I had no idea that the budget cuts were going to be that serious. And they are going to get worse next year. Mickey and other departments are expecting to have to make more cuts to their budgets. The budget cuts are going to become more difficult, and programming is going to suffer. Mickey wants to keep as much as he can. The LGBT center has a library that anyone can utilize, and sponsors events for organizations such as speakouts. The Faces of Pride posters, he told me, are designed to make out and closeted people more comfortable on OU’s campus while reminding everyone that the communities exist and are to be respected. Mickey would love to have three full-time employees and an office with a view overlooking the Baker Center escalators (or even just some windows; the comparison of the office to a closet is not lost on Mickey).
He knows, however, that he will have to make due with what he has and will continue to do his best to provide support to the OU communities. He loves his job and loves the communities. He will continue to do the best he can, and is happy to speak with anyone who wants to listen.
After speaking with Mickey and some of the other people in the LGBT center as well as my class, I found myself wondering how it was so much of this had escaped my notice. I like to think that, as a journalism student, I have a pretty good idea what is going on around me. I wish I would have taken the Gay and Lesbian Literature class two years ago. There is a great deal about the LGBT communities I simply did not know about. The damage that will be done to the humanities and student support organizations by the budget cuts is not getting the attention it maybe should on OU’s campus.
A bit of advice for journalists in Scripps from a senior on his way out: there is a lot going on behind the scenes that isn’t getting any attention. Sure, people want to know how the Bobcats are doing, but there is more to the campus. There are groups for almost anything you can imagine, and they deserve attention that they are not getting.
