Campus Pride has released its annual LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, a survey that gauges universities’ efforts to create a safe and inviting space for queer students and staff.
The good news is that out of 292 schools surveyed, 33 received an A grade (twice the number as last year). Vanderbilt University, Oberlin College, Amherst College, MIT and University of Pennsylvania were among the colleges that garnered five stars, the top rating Campus Pride gives in eight categories—policy inclusion, support and institutional commitment, academic life, student life, housing, campus safety, counseling and health services, and recruitment and retention efforts.
Of course, there’s something of an honor system in effect: Schools update their own Campus Climate Index by answering 50 self-assessment questions. But many are straight up yes/no factual inquiries, including, “Does your campus have a LGBT alumni group within the existing alumni organization?”, “Does your campus include sexual orientation in public written statements about diversity and multiculturalism?,” “Does your campus offer health insurance coverage to employees’ same-sex partners?”
Among the schools not on the dean’s list were Philander Smith College in Little Rock, AK, Iowa Central Community College and Virginia’s Lynchburg College, which all received one star.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Time to hit the books, guys.
Does your school’s ranking not match your experience? Share your experience in the comments!
Images via Campus Pride
christopher di spirito
The linkie is a stinkie.
Dan Leveille
Yeah, the link doesn’t work. But I went to the site. I don’t understand why you have to register to access any data.
There goes their SEO…
Sid
It is not appropriate to have to register with their site. The whole point is that gay people still suffer from less than full equality—even though I don’t think they’ll abuse the information, they should know better than to ask for it.
Dan Avery
From Editor: Thanks for the heads up, guys. The link has been fixed. As for registering, you can provide a pseudonym and fictional email address if you don’t want to reveal your personal information. There’s no confirmation email or password needed.
Ted B. (Charging Rhino)
I have to give them my info for their mailing list? ….Just to look-up the ol’Alma Mater? SCR*W TH*T…..
davidyu
I registered with Poopie McPoop as the username and [email protected] as email. Agreed it’s stupid to ask for email…
Also it seems a lot of the questions focus on whether there’s protection for LGBT students in an unfriendly environment. Fortunately, most of the top universities in this country are beyond that, so they might answer no to “Do you have housing options that allow gay people to room together?” That might hurt their overall score, even if out gay students regularly room with straighties without incident.
Jack
OBERLIN!!!! So proud 🙂
Jay
Representing Oberlin College! A well deserved A. I’ve never seen anyone discriminated against because of sexuality and students/faculty/institutions/events are all incredibly inclusive.
Max
I looked up all of the music and art colleges in my area (one of which I’m a student) and I got nothing. Are we supposed to just assume that those schools have 5 of 5 Stars?
Gaytorium
My school has very gay friendly professors but it could do with more active LGBT groups on campus. The school is on Long Island which is fairly conservative so I doubt many students would be overly excited about such a group but I know plenty of LGBT kids on campus; whether they just don’t feel like starting one or if they’re worried about what will happen if they do I don’t know.
B
Re: “From Editor: Thanks for the heads up, guys. The link has been fixed. As for registering, you can provide a pseudonym and fictional email address if you don’t want to reveal your personal information.”
The editor might want to also look at http://www.mxsweep.com/blog/bid/67133/Anonymous-Breaches-SFO-BART-Web-Security-Posts-Private-Data for why some of us are going to think twice about giving out such information. It’s not about being closeted: aside from the
possibility of more spam, an email address can be used as a key to gather all sorts of
other bits of information about you to help in various scams.
BTW, that link is a good warning about the potential PR disaster if you don’t protect user information adequately.
3mmy
What about Morehouse? <;(
ThatRandomGuy
Wooohoooo Stanford!
Chico
Sweet! IU Bloomington is one of the thirty-three! I kinda-suspected as much… it’s been a great experience for me so far.
Marvin B.
@3mmy: Most people wouldn’t consider it too friendly, considering their dress code. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-10-17/us/college.dress.code_1_dress-morehouse-college-all-male-college?_s=PM:US
I am proud to say UC Riverside got 5 stars!!! soooo proud of my school!
3mmy
@Marvin B.: Aww man…. I’m really considering going there when I graduate from high school in May….. 🙁
joe_hill
ANTIOCH COLLEGE in Yellow Springs, Ohio was (as far as I know) the first college to recognize GAY marriages on an equal basis with opposite-gender couples…back in 1973…!