Campus Pride at US San Diego
USNA Out participated in the second-ever college admissions fair aimed at LGBT high schoolers at UC San Diego. For most of the 45 participating colleges — such as Princeton University, Stanford University, Yale, Penn State, and UC San Diego — the event was a perfect opportunity for them to advertise their fair and equal policies in recruiting the best and brightest of young gay Americans. USNA Out members attended to informed young gay Americans of the pros and cons of pursuing an appointment to a United States service academy.
Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based organization whose mission is to make American college campuses safer for LGBT students, gave us accolades and was very appreciative of our involvement:
“Hey guys! Thanks for all your support and participation! Please keep in touch. We will be having the fair again at UCSD!”
Mike Foye ’81 and Stewart Bornhoft USMA ’69 — who along with Larry Wood ’86 produced our portion of the event –have composed a post-report that I think does a very good job of summing things up for us:
“This is a new event so they are still working out the bugs. Glad we participated, though.
“We talked with many of the nearly 60 students who attended. Because they were more interested in discussions with individual college reps than in a sit-down briefing, however, and because the layout of the ballroom put the briefing area behind a partition on the opposite side of the room from the main stage, three of the four planned presentations (including ours and the Campus Pride Organizers themselves) were canceled. Interestingly, we did have several of the Admissions reps express an interest in learning more about DADT and its impact. The only brief that was given was the one on financial aid to the individuals actually receiving the assistance.
“Notwithstanding the drawbacks, this was a noteworthy first for USNA Out. We let people know that we exist. We should seriously consider participating next year.”
It was my pleasure to draft an email to George Watt, Skid Heyworth, and CDR Austin (the PAO at the Naval Academy) to give them a head’s up about our participation in the event. Not surprisingly, I did not hear back from any of them.
The event was written up in at least a few locations online, including “Out in San Diego” and the “Daily Tar Heel” (out of North Carolina).
THANK YOU to Mike Foye ’81, Hubert Dorsett ’66, Larry Wood ’86, Stewart Bornhoft USMA ’69 and Tom Carpenter ’70 for making this happen!