Long Journey for a Generous Gift

Two decades ago, gay and lesbian rights activist Dr. Ralph Elias '32 caught the College off guard when he tried to donate money to Dartmouth to enhance the lives of gay students. Claiming that it was still formulating its policies toward gays and lesbians, the College declined Elias' offer.

"Dartmouth hadn't gotten anywhere near allowing money to be endowed for gays and lesbians," says English professor Peter Saccio, a longtime supporter of gay rights on campus. So Elias started a private foundationin 1985. He named it the Edward Carpenter Memorial Foundation, after a 19th-cen-tury English poet and gay rights pioneer. Saccio became a foundation trustee.

Elias' original dream finally became reality 13 years after his death, when President James Wright officially accepted $250,000 from the foundation in February. The College plans to add some of the money to its Stonewall Fund, which underwrites courses and lectures in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender studies. The rest of the money will support the activities of student organizations. Saccio told the SRO crowd at the Wren Room ceremony that the transfer of funds was more than a financial matter. "It is a mark of Dartmouth's growth over the past 15 years," he said.

Bragging Rites Cod is in the Details How do ocean currents, the salinity and temperature of the water, plankton populations and harvesting practices impact fisheries? To find out, the Thayer School of Engineering received a $1-million federal grant to help underwrite its decade-long ecological study of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. Thayer researchers use computer models to figure how best to manage the area's threatened commerical fisheries, particularly that longtime New England staple, cod.