A historic conference will take place Aug. 6-7 in Chicago when a group of lesbian and gay presidents of higher-education institutions will convene at the Adler School of Professional Psychology ( which will move to a new site in July ) and Roosevelt University. Last week, Windy City Times spoke with Adler President Dr. Raymond Crossman about the upcoming meeting.
Windy City Times: How did the idea start?
Raymond Crossman: A couple of different ways. There are only a few of us out of the thousands of college and university presidents in the country who are out and who are gay. [ Roosevelt University President ] Chuck Middleton was among the firstalong with this wonderful woman in Maine, [ University of Maine-Farmington President ] Theo Kalikow.
Chuck came into office six months before me, in 2003. As soon as I moved here, I saw a story about him in The Advocate and I said, "Oh! Thank God! There's another one of us." So I called him and that's really where [ it started ] . It's come from informal conversations between presidents, realizing our extreme minority status and wanting to talk with someone else like you who faces the unique circumstances of being out and gay in this type of role.
WCT: How did you go about finding the other presidents?
RC: In 2004, Chuck called a panel at the American Council on Education for out people to talk, and four of us talked. And we continued to talk at meetings like the American Council on Education, which is a presidents' meeting on the higher end. Then, there was an article that ran in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Paul Fain, and he wrote about how there are so few out gay presidentsthat led to some more being identified, with people calling in and saying, "Hey, you're missing me." Now we're up to about 21 who we've identified as out gay and lesbian presidents.
So at these meetings, we decided that we should get together more formally and talk about our common circumstances, leadership [ issues ] and what advocacy agenda we could define for LGBT issues within higher ed.
Of the 21, we have nine confirmed to attend. The first day will be at [ Adler's ] new campus and the second day will be on Roosevelt's campus.
WCT: So will there be workshops, etc.?
RC: Those nine presidents will get together but, also, our partners will meet separately ( but concurrently ) to talk about the issues that are unique for a partner of a gay or lesbian president. It presents a whole new set of issues. We joked that my partner is the first lady.
Traditionally, the way to start off a presidential inauguration is you say, "Dr. and Mrs. Whoever." So at the beginning of my inauguration, they said, "Dr. Crossman and Mr. [ Christopher ] Dillehay, we introduce you to the community." And the most moving part of my inauguration, I have to tell you, was when some gay and lesbian students started crying during that introduction.
So the partners will talk about their issues, and we'll talk about ours. We'll talk about developing other lesbian and gay leaders, defining a broader LGBT advocacy agendabasically, what trouble we want to make. [ Smiles ]
WCT: What do you hope the attendees take away from this?
RC: It's remarkable to me how fast things are changing. Just a couple years ago, there weren't any of us. When I came into office, there were a few of us. Now, there's a group of us. So for us to talk about how far we've come and how much further we need toand willgo is what I hope we get out of this.
I think it's the same as when any disenfranchised minority got together and talked about their experiences; it's important for the rest of the group. So when women or people of color came together, it led to interesting consequences for the rest of the country. So we'll talk about our experiences, and what we can and should be doing.
WCT: Also, I understand that three of the invitees are from the Chicago area.
RC: Yes. Three are from the Chicago area: there's me, there's Chuck and there's John Balester Jenkins, who is president of the The Illinois Institute of Art. [ Chicago ] is the only location where there is more than one [ out higher-ed president ] , and it fits that this first meeting is in Chicago.
WCT: Did you all invite Raynard Kington [ an out African American who will be heading Iowa's Grinnell College ] ?
RC: We did, and he has not taken office yet. I think he's taking office after this meeting, in late summer. We've been in touch with him. He would love to come, but his travel doesn't allow it.
WCT: What do you feel is the biggest obstacle LGBTQ students face?
RC: It's so different than when I was in schooland I would venture to say when Chuck was in school as well. For me, it was not easy to be out at all. In my undergraduate institution, the gay organization met in secret. In my graduate school, some faculty members were uncomfortable with the fact that I was an out gay man.
All of those issues have not gone away in some [ institutions ] , but in those that celebrate diversitylike Adler and Rooseveltthe situation has greatly improved. I think gay people, obviously, negotiate all sorts of prejudice and obstacles in their daily lives, but it's much different educationally, especially where the president is gay. There were very few out gay students when I came to Adler, and now the gay and lesbian affinity group is our largest group ( Adler PRIDE ) on campus. They have a contingent of 60 that will march in the parade this year.
It's been a very successful seven years for us. We've gone from being a couple hundred students seven years ago to about 1,000 graduate students in the fall. Also, we've added a second campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. We moving, as you know. We've added institutes, like social justice. And, maybe most exciting, we completely rebooted the whole curricula to create social-justice practitioners.