On Rev.Walter Cuenin's office door, there is a sticker of Ollie the Owl, but this Ollie isn't clothed in a blue sweatshirt; instead he is wearing a bright rainbow sweater. You can spot this sticker all over campus affixed to classroom and dorm doors alike. The sticker indicates reliable supporters of the lesbian,?gay, bisexual, trangender and queer community, and its prevalence hints at the diversity of the Ally community.

The sticker is the Ally Initiative's logo. According to Ally's website, the Ally Initiative is meant to "create a visible allied community of undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff; to raise awareness of issues and concerns surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity; and provide resources and support for Brandeis LGBTQ students, faculty and staff."

The Ally Initiative, established in 2008, serves to educate and organize a visible support system for the LGBTQ community. The Ally Initiative is sponsored by the Intercultural Center, the Department Community Living and the educational branch of Triskelion, the Queer Resource Center. The Ally Initiative is unique in that it seeks to institutionalize a framework of support by educating a wide range of campus faculty, staff and students in LGBTQ issues.

The Ally Initiative is comprised of two parts: The Ally Openness and Understanding Training Workshop, which encourages awareness of LGBTQ issues and teaches people how to be an ally to the LGBTQ community, and Ally community events, which connect campus allies to discuss the concerns of the community.

"The biggest thing is educating yourself about queer issues and being outspoken for the queer community. ... That sometimes, could be just listening," says Megan Straughan '11, a QRC coordinator and Ally participant.

Straughan says that while "there has always been an allied community at Brandeis, the institutional allied community really started when Alison [Better] got here."

Alison Better was hired in 2008 as a consultant for LGBTQ affairs, and this year she became the program coordinator for Sexual and Gender Diversity. In order to plan and coordinate the first Ally OUT Workshop, Better collaborated with staff from the ICC and DCL and students like Straughan from the QRC.

Better hopes the program will make people "more understanding of the diversity in our community."

During the training program, participants learn "what it means to be an ally, and concretely, how are you an active ally in daily life, and what that means at Brandeis," says Straughan.

Being an ally can be as simple as accepting a LGBTQ friend, or it may involve advocating for equal rights. Anyone can embody the role of a campus ally.

It may be "just listening, . validating and working to understand a friend, a peer, a student, whatever. Sometimes it's being vocal when others can't be vocal about discriminatory language [and] discriminatory policies," says Straughan.

Better and other organizers of the Ally training programs are conscious of including a wide range of people in the program. The annual training program familiarizes participants with resources helpful for LGBTQ students, faculty and staff. In this way, trained allies become a valuable support system.

All undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff may apply to participate. However, each training program is limited to 25 participants.

Straughan says the selection process is a constant challenge.

"We want every ally on campus to interact with each other, and we want people from all different backgrounds," she says.

The Ally OUT workshop spans all disciplines and aspects of campus life.

Cuenin, the coordinator of the Interfaith Chaplaincy at Brandeis, is a past participant of the training program and a strong supporter of the initiative. As a man of faith, Cuenin feels his obligation is to be supportive of marginalized communities.

"In the Catholic chapel, when you come into the lobby, I have a gay [pride] flag hung on the wall. . everybody is welcome," he says.

During Ally training, participants role-play "coming out" scenarios in which an individual is met with rejection, either by his or her parent or his or her religious community. Cuenin found this part of training to be especially challenging.

"You had to deal with all sorts of questions. As a chaplain, it was important for me to be a part of that because many times, depending on your religion, it can be a challenge [to identify as LGBTQ]. I wanted [my participation] to be a sign that the chaplains are open to all students," Cuenin says.

Associate Dean of Student Life, Jamele Adams, is also a campus ally and is vocal about his support for the LGBTQ community.

"I let it be clear and abundantly obvious that I am in support of civil liberties being the same for everyone," Adams says.

Adams offers administrative support to the LGBTQ community.

"He is wonderful; he has helped us [the QRC] with everything," says Straughan. She credits Adams with helping create a full-time staff position for Better.

Adams believes that the ally movement is "a worthy and necessary mechanism for ad

vocacy and support of

the LGBTQ community."

In addition to the Ally OUT Workshops, there are also Ally community events, such as monthly lunches.

"It's a community-building sort of thing . It has created a space for dialogue," says Better.

At the Ally lunches, members of the Brandeis community take turns leading roundtable discussions, such as Prof. Thomas King (ENG), who teaches courses like "Queer Readings: Beyond Stonewall."

"We have a specific topic of discussion, and we try to invite guests from the Brandeis campus. We talk about social organizing and the queer movement; how it's changed over time. We talk about queer theory as it relates to lived experiences. . It's just a time for people to have discussions in a comfortable setting," says Straughan.

Dawn Skop, a campus alcohol and drugs counselor and campus ally, has also helped the LGBTQ community through her training of QRC counselors in active listening and coming-out issues.

Skop remarks that there has been increasingly organized support for LGBTQ individuals thanks in part to the Ally Initiative. For the past six years, Skop has attended Triskelion's annual welcome breakfast for first-year students. This year, she noted a spike in attendance.

"I have gone to the Trisk breakfast for the past six years. When I first went there were eight staff and a handful of students; when I went in August, there were at least 20 to 40 staff members there and 75 students. . Sherman Function [Hall] was full!" says Skop.

Straughan considers another positive impact of the Ally Initiative: Not only has the program made the allied community more apparent on campus, but it has also made LGBTQ community feel more comfortable.

"I think that this program has made the ally community a lot more visible, which has been, as a queer student myself, important in making the campus feel safer," Straughan says.

In fact, the nationwide LGBTQ-friendly Campus Climate Index, a nationwide assessment of university LGBTQ programs and policies, gave Brandeis five stars for campus safety, its top rating. This is in part thanks to the support from public safety. Ed Callahan, Director of Public Safety, is identified as a campus ally by the QRC.

"I think Brandeis, generally speaking, is a good place to be for LGBTQ students. .but with everything, nothing is 100-percent perfect. . [The Ally Initiative] can help strengthen Brandeis as an institution," Cuenin says.