Thursday August 24, 2006
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Thursday August 24, 2006
Is NCSU the N.C. College Least Accepting of Gay Students?
The Princeton Review's just published 2007 edition of The Best 361 Colleges ranks NCSU 17th out of 20 colleges where Alternative Lifestyles Are Not an Alternative (or, to put it bluntly, a campus atmosphere that discriminates against homosexuals). It was the only college from North Carolina on the list.
Here is the full list:
1 University of Notre Dame
2 Hampden-Sydney College
3 Brigham Young University (UT)
4 Wheaton College (IL)
5 College of the Holy Cross
6 Baylor University
7 Texas A&M University-College Station
8 Grove City College
9 University of Tennessee--Knoxville
10 Samford University
11 Seton Hall University
12 Valparaiso University
13 Pepperdine University
14 Washington and Lee University
15 Miami University
16 Trinity College (CT)
17 North Carolina State University
18 University of Utah
19 Calvin College
20 Providence College
So is NCSU the least gay tolerant campus in North Carolina? To come up with their ranking The Princeton Review interviews 115,000 students at 361 top colleges. Their ranking is an opinion poll and not based on quantitative data. Only 361 colleges are included. Students at 23 North Carolina colleges were interviewed. There are at least another 30 N.C. colleges that are not included. Any one of those 30 or more colleges could have students who believe their campus is less tolerant to gay students than NCSU.
In the profile for NCSU on The Princeton Review website (it is free but you will have to register to view it) there is a section where they pick particularly apt quotes by NCSU students. Here they say:
Of course, at a school this large "there are so many different types of
people that everyone pretty much fits in." As one student puts it, "NC
State prides itself on diversity. A walk through campus would prove
this."
It is a shame that a school whose students claim "prides itself on diversity" is perceived by those same students to be a place that discriminates against homosexuals. Is it the least tolerant in the state? Maybe not. But of the top 23 schools in the state, NCSU certainly has the worst reputation. Let's all be more accepting and supportive of the BLGT community on campus and, hopefully, we may begin to attract and retain more alternative students. Then maybe next year or the year after, the Princeton Review will find that our students think this a campus that doesn't discriminate against Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian and Transgendered students.
Posted by orion Aug 24 2006, 09:01:20 PM EDT Permalink Comments [3]