IOWA CITY Iowa — The University of Iowa has become the nation’s first public university to include optional questions about sexual orientation and gender identity on its application, a move hailed Wednesday by advocates hoping to improve the college experience for gays and lesbians.
University officials say the move sends a strong signal that they value the diversity that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students bring to campus. They say that knowing some students’ sexual orientation will allow them to track their enrollment and graduation rates and promote housing, student groups and programs that might improve their social and academic success.
“This is a question whose time had come,” university admissions director Michael Barron said.
Iowa’s decision was praised by Campus Pride, an advocacy group that has been lobbying colleges to ask the questions so schools can track the progress of LGBT students. Elmhurst College, a private liberal-arts school in suburban Chicago, became the first and is still the only other college to do so last year.
Iowa’s new application, which went into use Dec. 1, asks students whether they “identify with the LGBTQ Community.” The item is listed with other optional questions about topics such as their interest in military programs and fraternities and sororities. A second change added “transgender” as an option for an applicant’s gender.
The admissions office will immediately email students who identify as LGBT with links to information on housing options and campus resources that may interest them, Barron said.
“This is truly historic,” said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, a nonprofit in Charlotte, N.C. “For the first time, a major, public and national research university has taken efforts to identify their LGBT students from the very first moment those students have official contact with them.”
