A number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students are beginning to choose their school based on its LGBTQ-friendliness rather than the school’s academic reputation.
Campus Pride, a national non-profit organization established in 2001, recently launched its “Campus Climate Index,” which ranks some of the country’s highest and lowest LGBTQ-friendly colleges.
According to the index, Emory University in Atlanta was ranked the top LGBTQ-friendly school in the South. However, many schools, including LSU, have not submitted any information to the website yet and have not been added to the database.
Chaunda Allen, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said she wasn’t familiar with the index but thought the concept was interesting.
“We’d definitely be interested in looking into completing a questionnaire and seeing what the website has to offer for our students,” Allen said.
Elaine Maccio, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, said she believes students are better off knowing more information about their school choices before enrolling.
“LSU would be doing a great service by providing as much information as possible, and all colleges should want students to find their best-fit school,” Maccio said. “However, it’s also important to consider the credibility of the website, who runs it and what their intentions are.”
Spectrum, an activist and support group for LGBTQ students as well as questioning students and their supporters of the LSU community, is one of the largest student-run LGBTQ organizations on campus.
Spectrum’s goal is to create an inclusive and social environment for LGBTQ students to network while also leading activist and educational projects that identify the needs of the LGBTQ population at LSU, said Kat Barry, Spectrum president and English senior.
“We have monthly meetings, social activities, political activism and education and outreach opportunities,” Barry said in an e-mail. “We also work very closely with the Office of Multicultural Affairs while providing individual students with support and resources through programs like First Contact, where new students are paired up with a peer mentor.”
Spectrum is currently working on an assignment with Residential Life and Multicultural Affairs to begin a residential community project. The main goal will be to help students connect in their living communities and to increase the level of support and protection in ResLife policies, Barry said.
“For example, we want to ensure transgender-friendly housing policies. Something like this has never been done at LSU, and it will be an important connection of departments and organizations across campus,” Barry said.
The University has made a lot of progress, and there is a momentum of students being out and being active as leaders in the community, Allen said.
However, while Spectrum does what it can for students, many feel it’s the University’s responsibility to invest more in the safety and growth of its LGBTQ students.
“While LSU is not an openly hostile environment for LGBTQ students and we have a very active and enthusiastic student organization and strong support from the Office of Multicultural Affairs, LSU could do a lot more to protect and support LGBTQ students, faculty and staff in official and institutional ways,” Barry said in an e-mail.
Barry said the most important next step for the LGBTQ student population at the University is to have a full-time staff member devoted to queer issues, and the OMA is working on a new LGBTQ initiative that will launch this semester.
“We are hopeful that this project will include a staff position because only then will the adequate levels of LSU-wide support begin to surface at LSU,” Barry said in an e-mail. “These are the sorts of steps that must be made before we see something like an LGBTQ resource center in the future.”
The University includes sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy, but Barry said gender identity and expression are not included in the policy, which means transgender employees are not protected at all from discrimination based on those identities.
Even many conservative colleges include domestic partner benefits, but in this case, the University is “behind the curve, and we’d like to see it change,” Maccio said.
Maccio said she thinks there’s still room to grow.
“We could always use a group for LGBTQ graduate students, LGBTQ students of color, or even LGBTQ students within colleges or even individual departments,” she said.
 
 
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Contact Kate Mabry at [email protected]