Autumn is nearly upon us; the breeze in the air signals what may hope will be a much-needed break from the long, hot summer we have endured. Students are moving back to our college campuses, to fill our residence halls, student centers, and classrooms with their energy and eagerness. And, the Princeton Review’s 2017 rankings recently have been released.
Most of my colleagues shrug and laugh off these rankings, some of which list the top 20 colleges based on titles like “Reefer Madness,” “Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians,” and “Stone Cold Sober Schools.” After all, we’ve been through enough higher ed cycles to see the attention given to these rankings spike and then wane in about a week’s time; and as a result, we measure their impact as minimal.
But the Princeton Review’s primary audience — prospective college students — do pay attention to these rankings. They’re shared widely on social media; they’re cross-linked by numerous news sources; they’re given as much weight (if not more) as the information broadcast to them from Admissions offices. And in the case of the “LGBTQ Unfriendly” list in particular, these rankings do a great disservice to our prospective students by giving a grossly incomplete picture of institutional commitment to LGBTQ+ individuals.
Now, in full disclosure my institution, Lehigh University, has been on this list for three years running. We are not a perfect place by any means; we have much work to do in our journey to be a more inclusive and welcoming place for all.
We also have had institutionally supported LGBTQ+ student services for over a decade. We received broad institutional support for over 100 gender-inclusive restrooms across campus. We have two full-time positions dedicated to support for and advocacy on behalf of LGBTQ+ people. And we have a vibrant, welcoming, and highly trafficked space in the center of campus for to LGBTQ+ students and allies.
How, then, did we end up on this list? According to Princeton Review, their many rankings are determined from an 80-question survey administered to 143,000 students at 381 schools. The LGBTQ Friendly and Unfriendly lists are both derived from one statement to which students are invited to indicate their agreement using a 5-point scale: “Students treat all persons equally, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.”
Regardless of how much validity you attribute to the Princeton Review’s methodology, this one-dimensional method of measuring inclusion is far from the complete picture. In fact, there are four colleges on the “LGBTQ Unfriendly” list that are also on Campus Pride’s “Shame List: The Absolute Worst Campuses for LGBTQ Youth” — Wheaton College, Gordon College, Brigham Young University, and the University of Dallas.
