Fall 1999 Newsletter

Executive Committee Weekend at Williams

The Executive Committee of the Williams College Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alumni (BiGALA) Network met on-campus for their annual planning weekend Sept. 17 - 19th. Hurricane Floyd could not dampen their spirits, even if he was successful in delaying many of their arrivals. By Saturday everyone was present, and rewarded for their efforts with a beautiful, sunny Berkshire fall weekend.

Meeting primarily in Hardy House, traditional home base of the Williams queer community, the weekend was spent making connections and plans for the coming year. On Friday, meetings were held with different on-campus organizations and offices. Dean Peter T. Murphy, Alex Willingham and Marcela Villada-Peacock of the MCC briefed the committee on the status of the search for a new LGBT Issues Coordinator, a wonderful culmination to years of student activism and thought.

Hodge Markgraf, Secretary of the Presidential Search Committee, spoke of developments in the search for a new president and gave helpful advice on how to insure that queer concerns were heard. Assistant Professor of Religion and co-Chair of the Dively Committee, Denise Buell, talked about their plans for the coming year. In one of the most constructive discussions of the weekend, the leaders of the BGLTU spoke about the current state of life on campus and ways that BiGALA can help improve the Williams queer experience.

Saturday and Sunday were spent reviewing the programs BiGALA sponsored over the past year and brainstorming about ways to make them better in the coming year. Always a highlight, summer 1999 BiGALA Internship participants Alexis Wruble '99 and Yung-En Chen '00 presented the culmination of their research. Wruble showed a 5 minute demo video and a 24 minute film-in-progress of a work following her coming out process and its impact on her family. Chen gave a slide presentation showing his research on the expression of the concept of masculinity through art, using his own work as a springboard.

One of the major commitments which came out of this weekend was the decision to host an April 2000 on-campus reunion, hopefully to coincide with the kick-off the BGLTU's Queer Pride Days. The event, tentatively scheduled for the weekend of April 14-16, will have a series of programs of interest to the entire Williams queer community. Other BiGALA projects for the year include: increasing the organizations's membership rolls, especially garnering more older alums and women; offering another summer of internships; exploring possibilities for career mentoring by alums; hosting regional events; and keeping strong connections with on-campus organizations.

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