"But no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time in the world. Whatever it meant." Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
College activism has the potential to be the most unfulfulling fight you'll ever face. You typically spend four years toiling for your cause, and then you leave, ready or not, whether your work is done or not. You're expected to move on, prosper, give 'em hell out in the real world. But who's left to take up your cause? Who will fight in your stead?
For four years, my friends and I fought to bring our Jesuit, Catholic university into that real world they were so rigorously trying to prepare us for. We fought for administrators to recognize and fund a support system for gay and lesbian students on our campus... and then we graduated and were forced to leave our goal unfinished.
Today, I got a phone call confirming not only that someone picked up our cause and fought in our stead, but that the fight was won. Today, my alma mater became the 28th and final Jesuit university to establish a support organization for its gay and lesbian students.
Not an organization lumped in with the women's center, or shunted under Catholic life. An independent organization with a budget and an executive board, I've been told.
For me, the news was colored by a rush of bad memories surrounding my time fighting for this cause. It took a while for my denial to fade, but when it did, I was in tears right along with my best friend, who called to give me the news. It was her fight more than anyone's, but we shared every step and misstep, every victory and defeat. And now, one big celebration.
I joined this cause in college because I felt it was my duty to fight for equality, for all women, not just straight ones. It's not that our Women's Center wasn't amazing, but who doesn't want a room of their own?
As it turns out, booking a room for a GLBTQ meeting was the least of our worries. There was an ultra-conservative bishop to deal with, not to mention a dean of students not willing to go to the mattresses for the people she was hired to serve. I mean, it's in her title, dean of STUDENTS; it doesn't take a doctorate to figure our whose side she should have been on.
And she and the other administrators would stand there and talk about Jesuit ideals: "cura personalis" or "care of the whole person." How can you care for the whole person if you don't care for their sexuality? You should have seen their faces when we pointed that out to them.
Knowing my alma mater, and its administrators' penchants for shoving news like this under the rug, this isn't a story that will make headlines anywhere but the school newspaper, Aquinas. But it has happened. It did happen. And we were there.
I now proudly call myself a graduate of the University of Scranton.
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Good job and congratulations! I know first hand how difficult it is to organize for progressive change on conservative, religious based campuses (Southern Methodist University). It's also vital to recruit younger students that will replace you after graduation. Again, great job. Our GLBTQ group is housed out of the Women's Center (now called the Women's Center for Gender and Pride Initiatives, at least) and although I know the students love it there, it's cool to think about a world where LGBTQ students could have their own office and staff.