A story never told

The late IU President Myles Brand began and ended his presidency in controversy.

While most people know about Brand’s infamous firing of basketball coach Bob Knight, few are aware of how he helped get the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services on IU’s campus.

Those who knew Brand said he made the University more progressive and cared deeply about IU and its students. But Brand, who died Sept. 16, was misunderstood by many students who thought he backstabbed the gay, lesbian and bisexual community.

In the fall of 1994, the political environment of Indiana was, as some administrators have described, “homophobic.”

“It was a hot political issue, and legislators were using that issue to promote themselves,” state senator Vi Simpson said.

Controversial beginnings in 1994

Intense opposition haunted Brand, the University’s 16th president, as IU administrators proposed an office for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Services, which opened 15 years ago this November.

The groundwork for what is now the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services Center had been laid before Brand came to campus, said Doug Bauder, GLBT office coordinator.

But when Brand was inaugurated in August 1994, “that is when the proverbial shit hit the fan,” Bauder said.

The legislators discovered that $50,000 of IU’s budget was set aside for the office, and that’s how the center became a target, Bauder said.

Former Dean of Students Dick McKaig said that Brand indicated to him that getting these services on campus was the right thing to do.

“Brand told me we would find a way to fund it with other resources,” McKaig said.

With a tight state budget, lawmakers, specifically state Rep. Woody Burton,
threatened a $500,000 cut from IU’s operating budget in response to the GLBT office, according to an October 1994 IDS article. The same article stated that Burton also hoped to block a $20 million federal grant to IU.

Burton had a very narrow view of what a minority is, Bauder said. Burton “proposed facial characteristics – as in Asian eyes and African hair and Jewish noses – as the official basis for defining the legal status of the minorities among us,” according to an Oct. 7, 1994, IDS article.

“Myles saw that diversity was more than a black or white issue,” Bauder said.

Jeff Nowak, IU Student Association president from 1994 to 1995, said that he and Brand testified together before the Indiana House of Representatives Subcommittee on Higher Education to support their case for the GLBT center.

“During my time with the government, I saw that the growing shortfall of state support,” Nowak said. “Any issue could influence one or more legislators, which could really have a ripple effect and affect state support.”

Brand flips on GLBT funding

Facing pressure from state representatives and students alike, Brand did what he could do to make sure the center came to fruition.

He chose to use private funding to support the center.

Instead of receiving public funding from the state budget, the GLBT Student Support Services Center is privately funded by the IU Foundation as well as the GLBT Alumni Association.

“Brand decided – why fight the battle altogether?” said Pam Freeman, associate dean of students and director of the Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs. “He wanted to get the services up and running. He figured out how to institute it.”

Students protested Brand’s decision for private funding.

“The students who were strongly for the center were very upset and thought the president’s decision was really a slap in the face to gay and lesbian community,” IU Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said.

However, IU administrators and faculty said Brand made the right decision.

“Brand committed to getting the office opened, and he knew in the midst of the controversy he had to switch the funding source,” Bauder said. “While from a principle standpoint that’s still a little frustrating because one, gay people pay taxes, too. And two, we don’t just serve gay students. We serve everyone. We serve this University very well. So from a principle standpoint it’s very frustrating. But from a practical standpoint it worked very well.”

Bauder, who has worked at the GLBT center since its start, supports its private funding.

“We got up and running and got a lot of university support over the years,” Bauder said. “Brand opened up the door to 15 years of great work on this campus.”
Although the decision was not ideal, it was innovative.

“The funding was not only creative, but it got the center going during a critical time and got the center established,” McKaig said.

Misunderstood mission, man

Although Brand was supportive of the center, his personality did not allow him to express it well to the student body.

“Brand without question was an introvert,” Nowak said. “He was not like a Ken Gros Louis in the sense that he did not go out dining with students in the residence halls. ... He was a very effective leader who appreciated issues affecting student life. In my experience he regularly valued the opinions of student leaders.”

Brand’s shy and quiet nature was misunderstood.

“He was a very serious president,” Gros Louis said. “He was a very shy man, which is interesting since he was president of two universities and a provost of a university. ... People felt distant to him. He was hard to get to know him because he was so shy.”
But those close to Brand saw him in a different light.

“I personally worked on a few projects with him,” McKaig said. “He was an easy person to get along with, and he was humorous.”

Despite Brand’s choice to use private funding, Bauder said he had faith that Brand was on their side from the beginning, and Brand demonstrated that commitment by communicating more with the office than any president since.

“It was very clear to me that he cared about this issue and that he was losing his mind to make everyone happy,” Bauder said. “And he thought private funding was the way to do it. But he didn’t communicate that with the gay students on campus.”

Brand was not acknowledged as an ally of the GLBT community during that time, but Bauder said he hopes that Brand can be seen that way now.

“As a respect to him,” Bauder said, “I want this story to be told for the first time.”