The Princeton Review’s 2006 edition of ‘The Best 361 Colleges’ ranked the New College of Florida in Sarasota as the most gay-friendly school in the nation, based on responses from students nationwide. The majority of the gay-friendly colleges and universities were in Massachusetts, while those with a low acceptance of gays generally were in southern states or politically conservative regions. (Photo courtesy of the New College of Florida)
Top 20 Gay-Friendly Colleges Rank - College - City,State 1 - New College of Florida - Sarasota,Fla.
2 - Macalester College - St. Paul, Minn.
3 - Wellesley College - Wellesley, Mass.
4 - Eugene Lang College - New York, N.Y.
5 - Mount Holyoke College - South Hadley, Mass.
6 - St. John’s College - Annapolis, Md.
7 - Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr, Pa.
8 - Lawrence University - Appleton, Wis.
9 - Emerson College - Boston, Mass.
10 - Harvey Mudd College - Claremont, Calif.
11 - St. John’s College (NM) - Santa Fe, N.M.
12 - Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering - Needham, Mass.
13 - Wesleyan University - Middletown, Conn.
14 - Marlboro College - Marlboro, Vt.
15 - Carleton College - Northfield, Minn.
16 - Smith College - Northampton, Mass.
17 - Haverford College - Haverford, Pa.
18 - Reed College - Portland, Ore.
19 - Bard College - Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
20 - Oberlin College - Oberlin, Ohio
Colleges With Low Acceptance of Gays Rank - College - City, State 1 - Hampden-Sydney College - Hampden-Sydney, Va.
2 - University of Notre Dame - South Bend, Ind.
3 - Baylor University - Waco, Texas
4 - Wheaton College - Wheaton, Ill.
5 - Grove City College - Grove City, Pa.
6 - Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville - Knoxville, Tenn.
7 - Texas A & M Univ.-College Station - College Station, Texas
8 - College of the Holy Cross - Worcester, Mass.
9 - Samford University - Birmingham, Ala.
10 - Brigham Young University - Provo, Utah
11 - Seton Hall University - South Orange, N.J.
12 - Valparaiso University - Valparaiso, Ind.
13 - Pepperdine University - Malibu, Calif.
14 - Washington and Lee University - Lexington, Va.
15 - Trinity College - Hartford, Conn.
16 - Vanderbilt University - Nashville, Tenn.
17 - Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, N.C.
18 - University of Utah - Salt Lake City, Utah
19 - Providence College - Providence, R.I.
20 - Southern Methodist University - Dallas, Texas
LEX RECZKOWSKI didn’t sound too surprised that his alma mater, Virginia’s Hampden-Sydney College had the unfortunate distinction of ranking No. 1 on Princeton Review’s top 20 worst schools for gay students. The private, liberal arts college for men sits 60 miles southwest of Richmond, the state capital.
Based on surveys answered by 110,000 students, the Princeton Review created the 2006 edition of “The Best 361 Colleges” and included best and worst rankings for food, partying, academics and quality of life for gay students. Ninety percent of the survey was conducted online and the rest of the responses were filled out by students in high-traffic campus areas across the country, according to the Princeton Review.
Organizers sent out an e-mail blast to undergraduates nationwide asking them to participate in the survey. On average, 300 students were surveyed from each school.
Out of the 70 questions asked, one was: “Do students, faculty, and administrators at your college treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientations?”
WHEN RECZKOWSKI, WHO graduated from Hampden-Sydney in 2003 and now works in the campus library, was a student he was selectively open about his sexual orientation.
“I was only out to the correct people,” he told the Blade. “If anyone was brave enough to ask, I was proud enough to tell the truth.”
Reczkowski did this as a “safety measure.”
“I can’t say I was afraid of physical violence but more emotional abuse or unthinking comments,” he said.
As a student, when Reczkowski received anti-gay harassing phone calls, he went to a school dean to complain. The dean told him that he didn’t know there were any gay students at the school and then, out of naiveté, not malevolence, asked him to name other gay students, Reczkowski recalled.
“That didn’t make me feel so good about being here,” he said.
While Reczkowski said that being gay on campus is slowly becoming a “non-issue,” the administration needs to do much more, like taking the lead in helping to create a Gay-Straight Student Alliance. A gay student alumni group is being formed, he said.
“I don’t think our student leaders should have to take the risk,” he said. “Nobody wants to be the first one to recognize the pink elephant in the room.”
Thomas Shomo, director of Hampden-Sydney’s public relations and chair of the Inter-cultural Affairs Committee, agreed saying, “I can’t say it’s a campus where students feel comfortable being out to more than their own circle.”
He said he planned to discuss the rating at an upcoming staff retreat.
“We’re moving in the right direction, but we’ve got a ways to go,” he said.
He acknowledged that the school also needs to address problems of racism. Hampden-Sydney was on the top 20 lists for students most nostalgic for Ronald Reagan and for most homogeneous student population.
STUDENTS AND STAFF at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., seemed more shocked by their school’s place on the anti-gay list. Staff and alumni at Holy Cross said they were at the forefront of supporting gay students’ rights at Catholic colleges. Holy Cross administration recognizes its two gay student organizations and one support group.
“I think Holy Cross was the first Catholic school to officially recognize and support a Gay-Straight Student Alliance,” said Jeannie Seidler, an alumna who founded the campus group in 1995.
Now Seidler runs a support group for Holy Cross gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students. Several have difficulty reconciling being Catholic and gay, she said.
“Many of the students are Catholic and may have had internalized homophobia,” she said. “They struggle coming out to themselves.”
An increasingly conservative Vatican also affects gay student life on Catholic campuses, she pointed out.
“In some ways Holy Cross has their hands tied behind their back,” she said. “There’s only so much you can do within the Catholic Church. There is some fear with Ratzinger being pope. … Will there be faculty and administration that are ‘too supportive’?”
Even though support and advocacy groups do exist at Holy Cross, and the religious department incorporates gay liberation into a liberation theology course, gay students may still feel isolated, she said.
“It’s not a place you would feel supported until you tap into those supports,” she said. “A lot of students have never talked to anyone gay before — that they know of. It’s hard always being the one to educate.”
Daniel Corrou, a gay chaplain at Holy Cross who advises the gay student clubs, said that the ranking doesn’t reflect how supportive the administration is.
“I don’t think it’s anywhere close to reality,” he said. “For us, it’s a question of perception. There’s a misunderstanding of Catholic teaching on sexual orientation that tends to pervade popular culture.”
UNLIKE HOLY CROSS, Seton Hall University’s administration refused to recognize its gay student club, TRUTH, sparking a lawsuit that is still weaving through the New Jersey courts. The group continued to unofficially meet though.
Seton Hall ,in South Orange, N.J., ranked 11th on the “gay community is not accepted list.”
“I don’t think [the ranking is] an accurate reflection of what Seton Hall is,” said Kelly Kaysonepheth, a senior and editor-in-chief of the school paper, the Setonian. Her editorial staff supported TRUTH, she added.
“Seton Hall shouldn’t be defined by that one ranking,” she contends. “What I found heartwarming was despite the denial, the group still forged on and held meetings.”
Seton Hall student government is planning to conduct its own survey to check the accuracy of the ranking, said Andrew Medeiros, Setonian assistant news editor and the reporter there who covers lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.
Some students at Vanderbilt, a Southern conservative school in Tennessee, took issue with their school’s ranking on the gay unfriendly list. Vanderbilt also ranked No. 4 on the list of schools that had little interaction between people from different racial and class backgrounds.
“Some other schools in Nashville are not even close to how progressive Vanderbilt is,” said Jonathan Sager, treasurer of Lambda, one of the two campus gay student groups.
Many students at Vanderbilt who come from small, Southern towns, he said, have never met an openly gay person before.
“It’s not always comforting to walk around campus and be open about your sexuality,” he said. At times, other students will look at his equal marriage buttons pinned onto his backpack with, he said, “weird looks – what are you doing?”
To get off the worst list, Tanya Mayo, program director for the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, advises schools to create GSAs and conduct trainings on homophobia for faculty and administration. Also, she suggested, schools can integrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues into their curriculum. When those subjects are introduced into the classroom, she said, it shows the “greatest overall climate change.”
SCHOOLS ON THE worst list tended to be Southern and conservative, like Virginia’s Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, which ranked 14th on the “gay community not accepted” list.
Many of the colleges on the pro-gay list are known for having socially conscious and politically progressive students — from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., to Eugene Lang College, the undergraduate, liberal arts division of the New School University in New York, Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, the New College of Florida in Sarasota, and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.
New College of Florida, which was rated No. 1 on the “gay community accepted” list, also ranked No. 1 for close to no participation in sports; No. 14 on interaction between students from different races and classes; and No. 3 for politically left student body.
The New College of Florida was rated No. 1 among students for its acceptance of gays, though the palm trees and view of the bay weren’t included in the survey. (Photo courtesy of the New College of Florida)
“This is a place where it’s not unusual to see a guy walking around in a skirt,” said Wendy Bashant, dean of students at New College of Florida.
New College, which has only 700 students, is an elite public school that costs about $3,400 a year for in-state residents.
When asked how her school created such a welcoming environment Bashant said, “It’s hard to say. … The faculty are out.”
She added that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues are addressed in classes.
“There’s a crossover between academics and student affairs life,” she said.
UNFORTUNATELY, MANY OF the schools that are the most accepting can also be the toughest to gain admission to and carry a hefty price tag.
“It’s disappointing to see so many small schools on the list,” said Robert Franek, author of Princeton Review’s Best 361 Colleges.
For gay students on a budget, he suggested Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., the University of Vermont in Burlington, the University of Maine in Orono. He also mentioned the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Rutgers’ gender studies program offers two classes in sexuality, one specifically on lesbians, as well as several classes about gender, race and class. The university also has many active and visible gay student advocacy and social groups; a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender special interest section in a dormitory; and a university office for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender concerns.
At the University of California- Los Angeles, undergraduates can even minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.
To find more schools accepting of gay students, prospective students can look at Youth Pride College fair participants, which include, Binghamton University – SUNY, Ohio State University in Columbus and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Don’t assume the large state schools don’t have those services,” Frankel said. “They might have more.”
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