highway80west

SDSU campus among 20 most LGBT-friendly - SignOnSanDiego.com

Was it the twice-yearly Big Gay BBQs or the Safe Zones ally training or the Queer People of Color Conference or the new minor in LGBT studies?

In fact, it was all of those aspects of life at San Diego State University, and more, that led to its recent recognition as one of the 20 best colleges in the country for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

The honor was bestowed by Campus Pride, a nine-year-old nonprofit focused on making college campuses safer and more inviting for LGBT students.

“They are definitely very progressive at San Diego State and they are doing amazing things,” said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, which maintains a Web-based “campus climate index” measuring the LGBT friendliness of campuses across the country.

The index awards colleges one to five stars based on their answers to a detailed questionnaire about programs and services available on campus.

San Diego State had been a 4.5-star campus, but this summer was upgraded to five stars, a rank held by only 20 campuses – among them the University of Oregon, Ohio State, UCLA and UC Berkeley.

UC San Diego, the only other local school ranked, has a 4.5-star rating.

“I think it’s amazing,” said Janelle Fejeran, a 22-year-old senior who is active in the campus’ Safe Zones program and other LGBT organizations.

“It’s so fulfilling. Four years ago, when I first started, it didn’t feel like it was an LGBT-friendly campus. But it’s evolved. Everyone has worked so hard. And to have this award is really great.

“To be one of the top-20 LGBT-friendly campuses is going to have a huge impact. It will truly influence students to come and be confident and pursue what they want.”

The Safe Zones program, which promotes awareness and nonjudgmental treatment of LGBT students, is one key to SDSU’s five-star rating, students and faculty said, as did Windmeyer of Campus Pride.

“We offer certification training on LGBT issues,” said Susan Cayleff, a professor of women’s studies and co-chairwoman of the 2½-year-old old Safe Zones program. “We have trained many members of the public safety department, counseling and health services workers, faculty, administrators and students.

“Once they are trained, they serve as resources for referrals. When they complete the training, they get a symbol. Those that have permanent offices display them on their doors. Those who are mobile on campus, like students, carry them on backpacks ... It shows they are trained allies, go-to people.”

In addition to referrals, the Safe Zone symbols simply indicate that the bearers will supply a supportive ear to any LGBT concerns.

Cayleff is one of a number of professors who teach classes within the LGBT minor that the university began offering just last fall.

The creation of the minor is another element that helped win the five stars, several people said.

Cayleff said there were probably only two or three other such minors on campuses in the state when SDSU launched its program.

“Most major universities? No, they don’t have them,” she said. “So this is a very, very big thing.”

Several members of the campus community mentioned the Queer People of Color Conference that SDSU hosted in May as another element that helped win recognition.

“It was held in Aztec Center,” said Aaron Bruce, the university’s director of diversity. “We had about 400 students, high school and college, from all over. It was a really good event.”

They also point to the Big Gay BBQ held once a semester to bring together students, faculty staff and community members with free food and live entertainment.

Other events they cite are an annual rainbow flag raising in July and Lavender Graduation, an event that celebrates the achievements of graduating LGBT students.

“We look at everything from policies and procedures to academic programs to events to make LGBT students feel welcome,” Windmeyer said. “Do they try to openly recruit LGBT students to campus? Do they have a mentoring program for LGBT students like they do for other minorities? Campus police, do they have training in LGBT issues?

“We really do look at every aspect of a campus community to determine a star rating.”

Windmeyer suggested that neither SDSU nor any campus should be complacent.

“It’s quite an honor to receive a five-star rating,” he said, “realizing that just means they are in the 90th percentile or better and even then there is room for improvement.”

And next year, he said, Campus Pride will be modifying its index and “the bar will be raised even higher.”

Cayleff, the women’s studies professor, said there has been negligible resistance to all the advances on LGBT issues on campus.

“There are individual incidents of conflict, particularly with people with strong religious beliefs, and it would be naive to say that there are not pockets of opposition,” she said. “But no broad campus group has responded with hostility. And I think a lot of that is because all the remarkable things we’ve done in the last couple years we’ve done in coalition.”

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Well, that is good news.

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Mrs. CJ Parker

People living in harmony....god allowed to be the judge...cool beans.

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The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy. ~Woodrow Wilson

garysher

Why do we need to make campuses more "inviting" for lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals?

I thought everyone was equal and we didn't give special privileges to minority groups?

Do you really want your child to go to a college swarming with kids who aren't sure if they are male or female? Those people really need treatment, not encouragement.

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highway80west

Treatment for what, Gary!? Mighty white of you. Your rich homophobia at work. Perhaps you should enroll there for gay sensitivity training.

There will be no treatment, unless you happen to run an asylum.

Go on SDSU's website and see if there are treatment centers on campus. You might want to be the guinea pig there. Bring along your runty pal Dusty, too, wherever he is.

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pensacola_niceman

Does SDSU offer a degree in Gay Studies?

Catus Felidae

No Gary, that would be you.

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Bother not the cat. For they are sneaky and will piss on thy keyboard.

tristanrobin

I know you can get a degree in sociology with a focus on gay studies. I'm sure there are other degrees that have a gay studies focus - perhaps history or literature?

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(¸.•´ (¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥

highway80west

Well, you can always find out here.

Welcome to SDSU

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PaperAlchemist

Gary disapproves. Oh no, the world will come to a screeching halting end. Up will become down. Down will become up. WILLIAM SHATNER WILL LEARN TO ACT PROPERLY!

IT'LL BE CHAOS! IT'LL BE INSANITY! IT'LL BE....

Oh wait. No it won't. That's just how Gary views the universe.

Funny, in another thread, he posted how a lesbian doing a study on lesbians is biased.

When a bigot tries to say he knows more than all accredited medical associations in the U.S. and follows the word a debunked and de-credited association like NARTH gets all the thanks in the universe from him.

Biased, indeed.

highway80west

You might think that when Gary says that he does fear gays and lesbians, he probably fears himself.

So he must have a picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt hanging on a wall at his home or his place of business. FDR came up with the famous line when he said, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself."

By the same token, Gary probably has a picture of the Star Wars character Yoda hanging upside down. Yoda said that "fear leads to hate". How come Gary says that he does not fear gays and lesbians when he acts like he hates them with a passion?

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