A campus’ social climate for tolerance and its treatment of women and minorities aren’t criteria that factor in traditional college rankings, but they probably should be.
Overall campus safety, tolerance and treatment of women and minorities should be factored into the equation of choosing a college, according to the results of a pilot study released today by the Campus Tolerance Foundation.
Over the course of three months, 1,039 undergraduate students from three colleges — Columbia College, Michigan State University and the University of California, Berkeley — responded to an online survey about topics relating to campus diversity, security and mutual respect. Among the findings, 40 percent of students say that female students are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to be sexually harassed.
The findings released today are the first component of a three-part series of the pilot study called, “If I’d Only Known: University Students Talk About Tolerance and Safety on Campus.” Officials say that the overall objective of this research study is to eventually craft a “national survey mechanism” that uses concepts such as campus tolerance and social climate to rate colleges and universities across the country.
