AU sole D.C. campus to win perfect gay score

Nearly double the number of schools from last year have received a five-star rating on Campus Pride’s LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, which was recently released.

These 33 schools are all over the country; American University is the only school in the D.C. area to receive the perfect rating.

Since 2001, colleges and universities are encouraged to update their Campus Climate Index with new data and information that reflects their institutions’ continuing efforts to create safer, more inclusive campuses by answering more than 50 self-assessment questions.

Some of the questions these schools are asked to answer include: “Does your campus include sexual orientation in public written statements about diversity and multiculturalism?,” “Does your campus offer health insurance coverage to employees’ same-sex partners?,” and “Does your campus have a LGBT alumni group within the existing alumni organization?”

The schools that received a perfect rating excelled in eight areas: LGBT policy inclusion, LGBT support and institutional commitment, LGBT academic life, LGBT student life, LGBT housing, LGBT campus safety, LGBT counseling and health and LGBT recruitment and retention efforts.

American University scored five stars in all but two of these areas. The school received 4.5 stars for housing and residence life and only 3.5 stars for campus safety.

According to the index’s report card for the school, campus police are not trained on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression issues.

For more information on American University and its LGBT resources, visit american.edu/ocl/glbta.

There are 14 other schools in the area that scored three or more stars on the index: University of Maryland, College Park scored 4.5 stars; George Washington University, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Virginia Tech, Georgetown University, University of Mary Washington and Towson University scored four stars.

Washington and Lee University, University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University scored 3.5 stars and University of Richmond, Goucher College, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and James Madison University scored three stars.

For more information on the Index, including the complete breakdown of scores for schools in the D.C. area, visit campusclimateindex.org or campuspride.org.