How Dartmouth elected its first openly gay student president by speaking out and ACTing UP.
By Michael J. Amico, Dartmouth College
Wednesday June 7, 2006
I had never cried tears of joy until April 26, 2006, at 7:45 p.m. when I received a mass e-mail from a friend:
I have regained my faith in grassroots activism.Congratulations to Timothy Andreadis ‘07, our new student body president, and to his ENTIRE team of amazing peoples who put their heart and soul into making this happen, and to everyone who voted for him. Thank you ALL.
This is going to be damn huge. Break the silence.
My tears were the culmination of a week of sweat that has now become grist for national headlines. How did this happen? E-mail, it will turn out, had a lot to do with it.
The recent Dartmouth College Student Assembly (SA) election has been the topic of a spurt of national news stories in the gay and straight media, most notably “Out, and leading, at Dartmouth” in The Boston Globe on May 9. Although In Newsweekly proclaimed on May 10 that “Dartmouth goes gay,” it has been “gay” for quite some time, as any quick perusal of Manhunt.net (location: Hanover) would demonstrate.
But everything gay aside, Dartmouth would not have witnessed the recent election of an openly gay write-in candidate for SA president by a landslide margin of votes if it were not for the grassroots activist strategies popularized by ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in the late-1980s.
As anyone familiar with social change movements is aware, ACT UP was one of the most effective political organizing groups in U.S. history. Their aim was blatantly obvious — disrupt the status quo until people listened. Their methods were overtly visible—sloganeering and images plastered in public spaces. And their structure was unabashedly unified—coalitions, coalitions, coalitions.
Despite this country’s special fascination with both young people and people in public office avowing a gay identity, it is not the full story here. In fact, the news coverage of this event parallels the biased, faulty, and misinformed AIDS media coverage during the early stages of the epidemic, a sobering reality on which ACT UP focused much of their efforts. The real story, however, and one influenced and shared by ACT UP is: When you speak to people’s needs, they will respond, regardless of how they identify sexually.
This June commemorates 25 years after the first published report (PDF) of AIDS in the U.S. Nonetheless, it is an anniversary that means little to a generation that was born in the mid-1980s and has never — as a community of young gay people — had to face the devastation of AIDS among our friends as has previous generations.
Although young people must negotiate AIDS, and other STI’s, in their sexual interactions, the fear of contraction and immediate death has been effectively mitigated by “safe sex” education and highly evolved drug therapies. The resulting attitude, that “AIDS in not our problem,” has led many to forget the militant activism to which it gave rise.
The AIDS crisis and the modes of response employed by ACT UP should never be forgotten. Although the comprehensive story of AIDS around the world might not engender an immediate emotional response in young people today, the activist lessons of ACT UP on how to creatively battle misinformation and ignorance in an emotionally invested way are vital to our success as campus activists today in creating lasting change.
ACT UP crafted their message in a way that would not blame the lack of health funds solely on the stigma of having AIDS. The financial dearth had everything to do with a majority of the people dying of AIDS also being poor and of a racial or ethnic minority. The fight was about rights for all underrepresented groups. Similarly, at Dartmouth, Andreadis’s campaign demanded cuts in the SA budget — yes, the body Andreadis was running to head — so that more money could go to the burgeoning number of student groups. This strategy was dependent on coalitions, all the members of which would ultimately benefit financially.
By framing his campaign promises as systemic changes that everyone favors and from which everyone benefits, Andreadis became both the first write-in candidate and openly gay man to win Dartmouth’s campus-wide election for SA president. In contrast to the campaigns of the three opposing ballot candidates, Andreadis and a team of students organized a massive grassroots campaign over one week, directly influenced by ACT UP.
The Dartmouth community has not witnessed such an intense and contentious campaign in recent memory. Andreadis’s platform highlighted some of the most pressing yet under-acknowledged problems plaguing Dartmouth, including sexual assault, retention of women faculty and faculty of color, and strengthening ethnic and gender studies programs in a way that was unavoidably tough on the unaware student.
The same was true for ACT UP and one of their most famous posters of a bloody handprint: “THE GOVERNMENT HAS BLOOD ON ITS HANDS.” Even though he was a write-in candidate, Andreadis garnered more attention than the three other ballot candidates because of the daring way we presented his campaign issues as more than just connected to the campaign. Indeed, the campaign was very much a mission — and a mandate — to speak the truth.
Similar to the taboo subject of sex and disease that stigmatized the efforts of ACT UP, as a campaign team we faced demoralizing reactions to our campaign tactics that highlighted previously untouched issues, such as the prevalence of sexual assault at Dartmouth.
Duke University is not alone in dealing with issues of sexual assault. Dartmouth has been struggling with an appallingly high incidence of rape and sexual assault since the College admitted women in 1972. According to the Center for Women and Gender at Dartmouth, there were 109 rapes on campus last year. Consequently, women at Dartmouth have a 17% chance of being raped before they graduate.
The impetus to calculate this statistic was also inspired by ACT UP’s use of jolting statistics on their posters. For example, one of their first was AIDS: 1 in 61. “One in every sixty-one babies in New York City is born with AIDS or born HIV antibody positive. So why is the media telling us that heterosexuals aren’t at risk? Because these babies are black. These babies are Hispanic.”
We knew that most students had heard that sexual assault at Dartmouth was a problem, but the gravity of the situation had not altered the state of general apathy surrounding the issue until we framed it differently — in a way that made every woman at Dartmouth, no matter her race, consider that she could not separate herself from the realities of college life.
At 3:35 a.m. on Friday, April 21, we sent out the first of a number of campaign-defining campus-wide e-mails with the subject line, “Dartmouth is in TROUBLE” — beginning that e-mail with the 17% statistic. Previous ACT UP slogans and graphics continued to influence our approach, specifically the printing of 600 blunt, in-your-face postcards: "Imagine getting into an Ivy League school. Imagine having a 17% chance of getting raped. Imagine being a woman at Dartmouth. Imagine you can change this. Some traditions have to be stopped."
The text placement over the image of Dartmouth’s shield is meant to echo another ACT UP poster with text written on an American flag. Both are designed to question what it means to be a member of an institution — either school or nation — and the inequities and privileges that play out along class, racial, and gender lines.
At no time did we think that anyone would recognize these sloganeering and image-dependent strategies as inspired by ACT UP. Our aim was the same as ACT UP’s: The artistic presentation of our messages serves the purpose of articulating a position in a quick and clear manner.
A few days of putting up posters and e-mailing on campus instigated many to wonder if Andreadis was all about pointing out the problems rather than finding any solutions. ACT UP faced similar charges from those who did not have the full picture of their activist efforts. At every demonstration, ACT UP disseminated a sheet of demands or additional information that outlined what should be done to stem the injustice they were protesting. We did the same thing.
We knew it was not enough to simply address sexual assault in a realistically harsh tone, so we also actually devised a plan, "Zoning In On Responsibility," that we hoped would begin to stem the high rate of rape on campus. The plan is designed to hold people in all spaces — from residence halls and sports facilities to the library and off-campus housing — at Dartmouth accountable and strengthen the many diverse communities spread across campus.
The plan maps out the entire campus into separate zones — every building and large outdoor area being its own zone. At the end of every academic term, SA will compile where reported incidents of sexual assault occurred, map that information into its appropriate geographic zones, and publish it in a report available to all students. This is similar to the wildly successful CompStat crime fighting system devised in New York City.
Not only will the plan instill in every student a renewed sense of owning one’s space, it will also foreground personal responsibility and responsibility for one’s community and work, social, and living spaces. We hope this approach will also help and give a reason for every student at Dartmouth to report incidents of sexual assault — or any kind of biased crime — so that the entire campus can unite for the personal safety of all, ensuring our coalitional imperative begun during the campaign.
During our forthright and dramatic presentation of the campaign issues, the backlash became more pronounced as the buzz spread, and we were consistently attacked as alarmists. However, if the campus-at-large is not forced to witness firsthand the effects of such serious problems as sexual assault or the loss of minority faculty, then no wonder that when these issues are discussed in a serious and realistic manner, as they were during the campaign, no one believes us.
Too many people often think that despite the numbers, the victims, or perpetrators, must be someone else. Such was true for ACT UP (“AIDS is the gay plague”) and the Dartmouth campus (“Sexual assault doesn’t happen in this fraternity”).
One e-mail we received during the campaign argued that the 17% statistic must be lower in reality because “wouldn’t it make sense that a woman could be raped more than once, and that it’s highly probable for such a pattern to occur because the same women continue to put themselves in dangerous situations.” This person was basically saying that sexual assault is not as serious a problem if fewer women get raped more than once.
The challenge is to make people who do not think that they are personally affected by women’s or minority issues understand how they are implicated in a social system that reproduces such realities. During the election campaign at Dartmouth, we continually stated, through the description of the sexual assault plan and our own form of rhetorical reply, “Do you want to harbor abusers in your residential space?” and “Who are you trying to protect?”
By relying heavily on e-mail and personal networks, door-to-door canvassing, coordinated get out the vote efforts, and straightforward messages on campaign flyers and postcards, we certainly got our hands dirty. Of course, the “safer” thing to do would have been to step back and let things continue untouched. But silence allows problems to fester and increases the shame that is attached to speaking out about them. We decided to break the silence, not as individuals but as a coalition of concerned students.
Dartmouth has needed to take such a step for decades. In order to ensure positive change, such direct action politics must continue to be an ongoing effort by a group of committed individuals who have the courage to intervene in the status quo and demand attention to issues previously ignored.
Coalitions will be successful in giving rights to marginalized groups only if they advocate for the betterment of all people. That’s why ACT UP advocated for universal health care. ACT UP is a vital source for young progressives to emulate. It worked at Dartmouth, and hopefully other progressive student government candidates will do so too.
ACT UP graphics taken from AIDS Demo Graphics by Douglas Crimp (Seattle: Bay Press, 1990).
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Comments
Why was Andreadis a write-in? One can still be “grassroots” and have innovative campaign tactics while still not missing filing deadlines (if that was indeed the problem).
Also, Columbia elected an openly gay student body president this year as well, but he didn’t feel the need to make his sexuality a large part of his campaign. He wasn’t the “gay candidate,” he was just Seth, and he won decisively on his platform of reforming financial aid.
— Lydia - Jun 8, 01:29 AM - #Combination of factors—candidates that he was planning to support dropping out of the race last minute, uncertainty about how his controversial platform would be received, etc.
He wasn’t “the gay candidate” in this race either. He was out, but his sexual orientation wasn’t a big part of the campaign. It was only highlighted by campus and national media after his victory.
— Marie - Jun 8, 02:39 PM - #Unfortunately, despite Tim’s victory (which was by a wide margin, compared to last year’s squeaker) plenty of Dartmouth students don’t feel sexual harassment and rape at our school is a problem. I know a couple of guys who say it doesn’t exist at Dartmouth, and several girls who say who cares, it’s the victims’ fault. And they mean it. I even know one guy who honestly believes that not a single rape occured in Hanover last year, and the 17% statistic is made up by Sexual Abuse Awareness Program advisors so they could keep their jobs. Even the school likes to turn a blind eye. The administration seems to exude a Bush-like “don’t talk about it because talking about it makes us look bad” attitude. Punishments for plagarism are usually worse than punishments for sexual harassment! I’m not sure Tim’s approach to fixing the problem is the best approach, but I’m glad he’s focused on it. It really is the biggest problem facing Dartmouth.
Also, I agree with Mark about Tim’s sexuality – it wasn’t a driving factor in the race. Campus articles about Tim barely even mentioned his gayness. It’s just the sort of story the national media likes to pick up on (and Mike, the author of this piece, who’s very active in gay rights issues).
— Nathan E. - Jun 8, 10:36 PM - #um…i appreciate that you devised a lot of great slogans for the campaign, that you were righteously (and rightly) outraged, and that this inspiration came from act up.
but act up was about a hell of a lot more than cute slogans.
act up’s primary mode of engagement was not petitioning the public (however ingeniously) but civil disobedience. indeed, training in those methods are a large part of most of the act up groups in the country (see, for example, act up/new york )
even when it was about creative demonstration, you really leave out some of the most innovative aspects when you reduce it to “sloganeering and images plastered in public spaces.” in the example of the bloody hands, for instance, your story is incomplete. the campaign’s most effective tactic wasn’t posting the flyers but actually using red paint to smear bloody handprints on thousands of surfaces throughout new york.
another more widely known campaign was when they delivered several dozen coffins to the steps of city hall, then held a mass rally demanding more aids funding.
so, yes, advertising and slogans were a part of the campaign, but it was grounded in a lot more than that—a history of nonviolence and civil disobedience.
i think it’s great that what seems to be a pretty progressive candidate (i agree with the others that a queer student body president is no big deal, but then i’m from swarthmore) won at dartmouth, and it’s nice that you got some of your ideas from act up. but i hope you don’t believe that act up was effective just because of shocking statistics. (they did not, for instance, ever run for any political office—a pretty big difference with this particular campaign.)
if anyone wants to read more about act up and their campaigns, i would recommend:
But Is It Art?: The Spirit of Art As Activism by Nina Felshin
From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization by Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk
— ivan - Jun 9, 08:33 AM - #Thank you for this success story.
A single New Hampshirite is as powerful as approximately 200 “regular Americans” in other states due to your regular direct access to powerful policy makers seeking your support in the first-in-the-nation primary.
Therefore, and because it seems like a good wind may be blowing through the hills around Hanover, currently active ACT UP members and student allies would love to be invited to campus later this year to help you with trainings on getting your voices heard effectively at campaign appearances and public forums.
We’d love to meet with student groups concerned with international and domestic health issues, inviting you to get active on common messages and get networked to support and update each other, and your peers in Iowa.
We are thinking September/October might be a good time to start planning.
Get in touch if interested: pdavis@healthgap.org
thanks!
— Paul Davis - Jun 9, 01:09 PM - #This is a joke. Andreadis’ rape statistics weren’t regional, nor Ivy League-specific. His numbers were flawed and he ran a fear campaign because he wasn’t competant enough to get the 100 signatures to be placed on the ballot. His proposed budget is a mess. Dartmouth has a VERY active gay community and this is far from a victory for the underdog. It’s postive discrimination.
— Dartmouth Student - Jul 10, 03:59 PM - #