Campus Pride, an organization that serves LGBTQ and ally student leaders and campus organizations to help create safer and more inclusive LGBTQ-friendly campuses, released its 2015 list of the most LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities in the country this past Monday. For seven years, this listing has highlighted the most LGBTQ-inclusive colleges and universities when it comes to policy, program and practice in higher education.
The Top 25 listing is based on the final responses to the Campus Pride Index, a national benchmarking tool which self-assesses LGBTQ-friendly policies, programs and practices.
Unlike some well-known LGBTQ rankings and other commercial ratings, the Campus Pride Index is based in research on policy, program and practice and is conducted for and by LGBTQ experts in the field of higher education. Each campus updates their index annually and uses the Campus Pride benchmarking tool to make improvements for LGBTQ life on campus. According to Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride and creator of the Campus Pride Index, “there is a lot to be learned” from the Top 25 campuses on this list.
In order to be in the Top 25 listing, an institution had to score the highest percentages in the LGBTQ-friendly benchmarks. The listing this year includes colleges with student populations from 1600 to over 50,000, public and private schools alike. The Top 25 list is in alphabetical order, as follows:
Cornell University
Elon University
Indiana University, Bloomington
Ithaca College
Macalester College
Montclair State University
Princeton University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick
San Diego State University
Southern Oregon University
The Ohio State University
The Pennsylvania State University
Tufts University
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Louisville
University of Maine at Machias
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Vermont
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Williams College
For more information, head to www.campuspride.org.
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