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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Tags: Calvin College, gay, Higher Education, LGBTQ, NYU, Princeton Review
After Thomas Coen said Wesleyan was “the most accepting school” of alternative lifestyles [Update: I put these words in his mouth. He was, however, hyping up Wesleyan.], I did some research to put his alma mater to the test. I knew that the Connecticut school was a bastion of tolerance and political correctness from my friends there who told me they write essays with gender-neutral pronouns. Campus Progress’ resident Wesleyan grads, Thomas and Ben Adler, reinforced that image by unflinchingly rattling off an “endless acronym” of sexually dissonant identities: “LGBTTQQFAGIPBDSM, etc.,” which stands for Lesbian, Gay , Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Flexual, Asexual, Genderqueer, Intersex, Polyamourous, BDSM (bondage/ disciple, dominance/ submission, sadism/ masochism), and everything we might have forgotten.
But is Wesleyan really the most gay-friendly school in the country? According to the Princeton Review, it’s the sixteenth.
Every year, the P.R. lists the 20 most gay-friendly schools. This year, NYU topped the class. Impressive for a school which didn’t even make the top 20 two years ago when New College of Florida was first. Here’s the list:
2. Eugene Lang College--The New School for Liberal Arts
6. Simon's Rock College of Bard
11. Emerson College
14. Grinnell College
15. Smith College
19. Vassar College
20. Reed College
NYU shouldn’t brag too much though. It also topped the list for number of students “dissatisfied with financial aid.”
Notre Dame was number one on the list of schools where “alternative lifestyles [are] not an alternative.” CP blogger extraordinaire Cara Boekeloo’s alma mater, Calvin College, finished #19 on that list. Calvin also finished #10 on “Stone-Cold Sober Schools” and #14 on “Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution.” Sounds like a hoppin’ place.
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We do a lot of things well. Acceptance of sexual identities is something we've always done really well. It's one of the things that makes me really proud to have graduated from a tiny public school few have ever heard of.
"Alternative lifestyles" are still not as accepted as they should be, but this year offered a glimpse of hope as instead of banning the Equality Riders, (a group of LGBTQ students and straight allies who go around the country to campuses such as Calvin promoting justice in campus policies for homosexual students) Calvin welcomed them for conversation. (The Christian school down the road, Cornerstone University, had them arrested).
Granted, it's just a start. But the visit of the Equality Riders proved to be fruitful for a lot of campus dialogue about a subject that tends to be taboo on a lot of Christian campuses.
As for the other categories, I can totally see the DAR thing.
Probably more useful for students too, since their list isnt all small lib arts schools. The reality is not all gay students would be happy in that environment.
Details here: Link
Best of the Best: Top 20 Campuses from The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students
(in alphabetical order)
American University
Duke University
Indiana University
New York University
Oberlin College
Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Stanford University
Tufts University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puget Sound
University of Southern California