Reprinted with permission from The Huffington Post (2012)
Stanford University, Minnesota’s Carleton College and Georgia’s Emory University may all be vastly different institutions in terms of size of their student body and variety of degree programs offered. Yet all three have been named to Campus Pride’s 2012 list of the top 25 most LGBT-friendly colleges and universities in the U.S.
As part of an exclusive partnership with HuffPost Gay Voices, Campus Pride officials have just released the full list, which also includes universities in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Michigan. The rankings are based on data from the Campus Pride Index, which rates both colleges and universities on LGBT policy inclusion, student life, academic life as well as other relevant practices using a five (highest) to one (lowest) star rating system. The full index comprises a total of over 350 campuses across the country.
Praising the top 25 list was Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer. “Every student deserves to feel safe on campus, and all of these colleges are committed to creating a more LGBT-friendly campus,” he said in a statement.
Calling it “the most reliable, trusted source” of its kind, Windmeyer noted that the index differed from others in that its ratings were “done for and by” LGBT people. He also stated that there was still room for improvement across the board, particularly in rural areas and Midwest and Southern regions.
“It is also important to recognize the 300 plus additional colleges that have ‘come out’ as LGBT-friendly on the Campus Pride Index, regardless of their star-rating,” he added.
The Top 25 list can be found below, with more information at the Campus Pride Index and the Huffington Post.
Carleton College
Cornell University
Emory University
Indiana University
Ithaca College
Oberlin College
Portland State University
Stanford University
The Ohio State University
The Pennsylvania State University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Utah
University of Vermont
University of Washington