UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM
MADISON’S LGBT COMMUNITY, 1960s-PRESENT

Interview #998
ALLGOOD, ALNISA

Alnisa Allgood (1968?- )
	Student Activist, Director/Founder of the LGBT Campus Center, Long-term Non-Profit Worker/Specialist 
						
Interviewed: 2009 (4/11)	
Length:  97 minutes 
Interviewer: Jason Orne 
Index by: Jason Orne

Abstract (all sessions):  In this interview, Alnisa Allgood primarily discusses the founding of the LGBT Campus Center. This interview was conducted for Madison’s LGBT Community, 1960s-Present and included in the oral history collection at the UW—Madison’s Archives and Records Management Services.

Keywords (all sessions): University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1980s student activism; 1990s student activism; Non-LGBT Madison Non-profits; Gay Rights/Activism; HIV/AIDs activism; The Ten Percent Society; OutReach; The United; LGBT Campus Center; Multicultural Center; National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce; A Room of One's Own;  Brubaker, Joe; Shepard, Janice “Jan”; Trekell, Eric; The Hotel Washington; Technology and Activism; IndieQueer; Midwest LGBT Differences;
							
Interview Session (April 11, 2009): Digital File

00:00:00     Interviewer's Introduction

00:00:23	Question: Background? Grow up? Answer: Ohio, northeast corner. Question: What was it like during your teenage years growing up there Answer: Don't think about it much. Wasn't out, was in pre-air force program

00:01:11	Question: Did you go into the Air force? Answer: yes and no, went to ROTC in Penn State, but didn't go into active duty. Just reserve. 

00:01:42 	Question: Penn State? College? Answer: Air Force ROTC scholarship for Chemical Engineering. Didn't have any goals to use those degrees. Started non-profit work at 14 and already wanted to continue that. Basically did engineering only for the scholarship. 

00:03:17 	Question: Non-profit work at 14? Answer: Year before high school got involved with the PIC program, a low income job creation program mainly for youth. From there, continued onto other non-profits and the library doing work for them. By first year in college, created/revived a non-profit and then into the lesbian gay center. Currently, Alnisa also has a non-profit

00:04:51 	Question: Story of starting that up? Answer: HIV/AIDS education and lesbian gay outreach program at Penn State. Starts explain how the non-profit rules worked at the time and how she was able to revive the organization. Previous, Alnisa was working with the women's center and the lesbian and gay student org on campus. Spotted growing need for this education, so just revived it to publish information in the community. Was very busy at the time, couldn't be too involved.

00:07:22 	Question: What year was this? Answer: Really bad with years. Went to Penn State in 1986, so sometime between 1986 and 1988. Question: Coming out experience? Answer: Didn't have one in the traditional sense. Had acknowledged it in high school but wasn't interested in anyone so wasn't an issue. After first year of college, just started going to the women's center at Penn State, which Alnisa knew as a place that "lesbians flocked to" 

00:09:45 	Question: Did that lead to your activism? Answer: perhaps with them, but was already previously working with activism. Later became a committee chair and got more involved with activism.  Question: What was it like to be involved with activism during that period? Any memorable fights/events? Answer: There were always fights. Penn State was fairly good already in Alnisa's opinion. "I mean, it wasn't Madison" but it was still a supportive community. Most of the events were annual rallies because nothing much changed. 

00:11:17  	That area of Penn State was fairly liberal compared to it's surroundings anyways. Example: dry counties vs. Penn state's county. Interviewer compares that to Madison. Discussion of alcohol laws in Madison. Alnisa mentions that there were bars in town at Penn that had lesbian/gay nights. Also, they threw some dances similar to the Ten Percent Society

00:14:20 	Lived in "the dyke house" for a while because 10 lesbian women lived there. Very diverse crowd. One fight: changing the school's discrimination policy. Another: Joe Paterno (sp?) Some discussion of sports at Penn. 

00:16:32 	Explains why sports was controversial. There were lesbians on the teams but the coach kicked off any out lesbians. Later was fired, but for a different issue. Outside of that, Alnisa can't remember anything in particular

00:18:18 	Question: How did you get to Madison? Answer: Kind of randomly. Goal was to live in 5 cities. Was finished with college except for a few courses that weren't being offered. Decided to come to Madison over Raleigh

00:19:57  	Knew someone going to Ann Arbor. Was dropped off in Madison without even a place to stay. Question: How was that like? Answer: Wasn't that worried, went to a Ten Percent Society meeting. Stayed in the offices for a couple weeks. That's how the campus center got started. Alnisa was reading through the historical files. Alnisa couldn't understand why there wasn't a center. She recognized the Dean of Students office as recommending one path to getting the center but the students were determined to get the center from the regents. Alnisa didn't think the regents were going to ever do that. 

00:21:31 	Dean Raus (sp?) and Jan Shepard had recommended going through student segregated fees. Alnisa contacted Jan Shepard with a proposal. They received approval and then had to wait for the next fiscal year. Alnisa says that others were too focused on the regents path that they didn't look for alternatives. Question: How did others react to you proposing this other plan? Answer: Good question, Alnisa doesn't know. She didn't look for consensus on this issue. She just took the plan to the LGBT organizations and told them what she was going to do. Wasn't looking for debate which would have prolonged the issue. Alnisa believes in just doing things and debating later. 

00:25:01 	Question: Where was it located? Answer: Off campus on Dayton street in the capitol center building. The first station was behind it and the senior building was in front of it. Near Cap Foods and the tanning salon. "A nice sized space" Similar to current (2009) size of the LGBT center. Current location of LGBT center was the Multicultural center. Describes what the union used to look like. Had been speaking to the Ten Percent Society about this subject previously. Liked it being off campus. Getting money for rent was easier than getting space on campus. Space on campus was at a premium and they wanted a large space for the center. Question: What's the story of setting it up? Answer: Wasn't really a process. Fairly easy. Just walked the street looking at rental properties. Needed a cheaper spot. Describes the set up of the campus center at the time. Describes some of the activities that the different areas of the center held.

00:29:36 	The space had been empty for years. Requested approval and signed the contract. Rushed the contract through so she wouldn't have to wait another full year. Discussion of the center's budget, including her staff budget. 

00:31:54 	Alnisa had multiple projects going on at the same time. Describes her other positions she was working at the time. The approval for the center was far ahead of it's start, so she needed other work as well. "I'm possibly making it sound easier than it was" But from the current vantage point, it was fairly straightforward. Jan Shepard was the advisor for the center. Ten Percent Society, Glima ( LGBT student of color group), campus women's center, Multicultural center, OutReach, and some community members were all on the board. OutReach had different name at the time [Alnisa couldn't remember the name, but the interviewer believes that name to be The United] Alnisa's focus was on inclusivity of people of color and people with disabilities.

00:35:05 	Some of the early programs are still in existence today. Example: lending library. Getting in the classroom. Speaker's bureau. At the time, the lending library was not connected into the library system. Joe Brubaker and Alnisa developed their own database system to manage it. Other student orgs used them for graphic design as well. Alnisa traded this kind of work for cosponsorship of events. Although they did not have a large programming budget, this is how she got events sponsored.

00:37:26 	Question: During that 8 months between approval and opening, what happened with the center? Answer: Mostly hiring. Hired an assistant director and a part time "helper". Finding the space and furniture. Also, some outreach to the community about the center. Once they had the space, they did electronic lists. Alnisa's work with the gay and lesbian taskforce allowed her to connect the center up with their email lists. Alnisa describes what she did with the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce. Describes the services they had at the center. Alnisa continues describing the specifics of the outreach at the time. Grand-opening was the first or second week of school Question: What kind of programming did you have a first? Answer: Lots! Support groups (Bi Shy Why?, a transgender group, a coming out group) Aside on Alnisa's views about coming out groups. Set up the space to hold meetings, existing groups but also specific events. 

00:43:13 	Continues describing events. Set up a people of color speaker series. Alnisa was surprised at its success. The Ten Percent Society had been bringing in speakers, but they were mostly attractive white men. First year, she invited 4 speakers. They were relatively small names. Mostly women speakers. Small turn out first year, but the second year they got very large. Other organizations began to co-sponser the events. OutReach [as The United] worked with the center and the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce to form a midwest regional conference. Other events were focused on integration into the classes and dorms. Wanted to be of service outside of lesbian and gay issues as well. "The ones we SHOULD have been aligned to even if they weren't into it" Pushed their services, graphic design and their larger email list, which was unusual for the time. 

00:47:53 	Describes email technology, how the center was ahead of the curve, and how it benefited the center. Question: How did things change for the campus and Madison once the center came? Answer: Hard to say. Center was a good resource but it wasn't "life changing" Alnisa wasn't that familiar with Madison at the time it was founded. She just knew the history from the Ten Percent Society's files. At first, Alnisa was very involved with the organizations, but wasn't interested in what they were doing. She was more interested in providing services than debating politics and arranging rallies. However, there was representation on the board of people who were interested in those things. 

00:51:35 	Some thought the center was going to distract away from the Ten Percent Society. Alnisa disagrees because their dances were still very popular. Makes comments about the dances currently. References the Hotel Washington and it burning down. Describes the set up. Alnisa liked "the barber's closet" They had a dance club, a leather bar, a restaurant as well. "Outside of the Ten Percent Society, that was the place to go" Alnisa saw the center's role as providing services: meeting spaces, information, etc. They were a resource center for other campus as well. Whereas now you can find anything online, back then the center was the way to research how to set up their own centers. 

00:56:13	 Alnisa says Wisconsin tended to protest rather than research how to accomplish things. Felt people needed to have solutions before they protested the problem. Question: Any conflicts or tensions in the early years? With other groups or within the center? Answer: Not while Alnisa was there, but the year after she left there was a big conflict. She "is not a big agitator" so while it might have been brewing, it wasn't obvious while she was there. When she left, she knew there were going to be contentious issues. Particularly around people of color and the center's funding. People thought the center didn't serve everyone and so shouldn't get funding. Alnisa made a big effort to make sure it did.

00:59:43	 Alnisa left though right before the next funding meeting. They thought it would be fine. She describes the candidates for her replacements. One was good with the funding issues but bad on service issues. The other was "a newbie" on the student government but good on the people of color and other service issues Alnisa choose the services issues as the priority. The next person didn't consult her and the center got it's budget's slashed in half. Alnisa felt bad about it, but thought that they should have consulted with her. They had dealt with the same issues before. The next candidate told her that he had felt unprepared. Because of the funding cuts, they moved back on campus. The space was very small as a result. The services and resources also were cut. That lasted 2-3 years. "What Eric [Trekell] has today is almost a total rebuilding of the center" 

01:03:50 	Question: What year did you leave? Answer: 1996? 1997? Muses on the timeline before confirming 1996. Was at the center for 4 years before leaving for San Francisco, but left a year's notice before leaving the center. Question: What was it like living in Madison at the time? Answer: "I had a ball" Alnisa loved Madison. She lived on the east side. Discusses again the other projects she was doing besides the center. Discusses the hotel washington. Mentions other bars: Club 3052, Amy's cafe, and "some place on the square that also did a gay night" 

01:07:25 	Liked Madison because it was small enough to walk since she doesn't own a car. There were complaints about the availability of resources in the campus. But for Alnisa: "there was a bar, a food place, a bookstore, what else did I need?" Discusses A Room of One's Own and their role with the center. Canterbury book's also did a lot on lesbian and gay issues. All the bookstores were very friendly. Recognizes that there wasn't much of a club scene but she didn't feel she needed or wanted one. 

01:10:37 	Describes a typical day for her. Some joking about all of the sexual conversations. Liked Madison, "Obviously, I still do, I came back" Explains why she didn't get involved in lesbian and gay issues again. She was taking care of her elderly mother. Felt that it was easier to connect with the community back then than now. Alnisa knows there are a lot of things going on, but she's just not interested in those types of activities (dancing/drinking). 

01:12:11	 References IQ [IndieQueer]. Dislikes that it doesn't have a space of its own. Would prefer if it didn't rotate to different clubs. The Hotel Washington provided that for her because it was always there for her to go to. She thinks that resource is now gone and been substituted with a more club resource. 

01:15:06 	We discuss why she doesn't like late nights and dancing anymore. "Things are different, but Madison has a lot of great resources. I don't think people value how at ease it can be here compared to elsewhere in the country" Thinks Madison is a great place for lesbian and gay people and people should value how good we have it here, particularly the large number of queer identified people that are not necessarily "gay" or "lesbian" "Madison is like a nice gay Mecca on the water" Sees Madison as an alternative to the big cities. 

01:18:01 	Discusses "the brain drain", most gay people leave the Midwest for the coasts and so most funding for LGBT non-profits goes there. Says that the Midwest always is doing more with a lot less funding. Describes her work while living in San Francisco. 

01:20:40 	Felt that the organization she worked with in San Francisco received about "10 to 20 times the amount of money and had to serve far less" Discusses how the LGBT campus center was able to work on far less. Attributes this to her and Joe's attitude towards the center. Returns to discussing the brain drain and it's relation to funding. Discusses the grant process for non-profits, the Midwest has a worse chance compared to the coasts because the amount the Midwest asks for is actually too little compared to the coast. 

01:24:43 	Question: Anything else? Answer: Not that I can think of... Talks about how fun it was to do the center. "Some people may disagree with me but the university provided enough assistance in getting that accomplished..." Praises the board of directors they had at the time as well as the connection to the dorms and the university centers. Describes the great relationships they had with other organizations. Thought that it was due to the "self-extension" that the center put out to organizations that wouldn't traditionally have been involved.

1:27:42 	Mentions this was particularly true for the black student alliance. Mentions a Native American organization on campus that had a similar effect. 

01:33:05 	Continues discussing co-sponsorships and that the center's effect was probably to really connect the different progressive organizations on campus together. 

01:34:03 	Question: Anybody from that time to be interviewed? Answer: none of them are still in Madison. Janice Shepard -- still in UW system but not in Madison. Dean Mary Rouse (sp?) In terms of the board members: David Wilcox. Tiffany Newbie (sp?)-- in San Francisco. Debra Bay. Ray Hernadez -- in Chicago. Tory the director of the campus women's center at the time. 

End of Interview