NEW YORK TIMES FEATURES CAMPUS PRIDE

How to Find a Gay-Friendly Campus?

CAMPUS PRIDE'S NATIONAL LGBT COLLEGE FAIR PROGRAM

THEY ARE HERE TO RECRUIT YOU
Colleges Reach Out as Never Before
by John Schwartz

READ THE ENTIRE STORY ONLINE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18guidance-t.html

The scene was similar to one that plays out thousands of times a year in gyms and auditoriums around the country: a college fair. The folding tables, the school banners, the admissions officers with a student representative or two, and the brochures and tchotchkes laid out. The only thing that might have made this one appear out of the ordinary was the preponderance of handouts with rainbow designs, and the fact that the fair was being held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village. This college fair, and several like it around the country, was devoted to recruiting gay students.

“Actually going out and recruiting a gay student — that’s a very new thing for colleges,” says Shane L. Windmeyer, the co-founder of Campus Pride, a national organization that promotes safe college environments for gay students and sponsored the event.

While Ivy League schools are often represented, the fairs also attract lesser-known institutions like Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Scott A. McIntyre, associate director of admissions there, says that his university attends some 500 fairs each year, and that including one for gay students made sense.

“The more I can help my institution be open to diversity of all different kinds,” he says, “it’s just going to make us a stronger university, and it’s going to make our student body be more robust.”

UPCOMING CAMPUS PRIDE COLLEGE FAIRS

READ THE ENTIRE STORY ONLINE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18guidance-t.html

Thank you to the New York Times for this article and helping organizations like Campus Pride reach a broader audience of people with our programs and services.

Campus Pride is committed to creating safer, more welcoming colleges and universities across the country. Please visit us online at http://www.CampusPride.org or visit our blog at http://www.CampusPrideBlog.org.

To search for upcoming college fairs and the 230+ LGBT-friendly colleges who are a part of our online index, please go to http://www.CampusClimateIndex.org.

As Harvey Milk said often: “We are here to recruit you..” Today colleges not only should be gay friendly and responsible to LGBT student academic success — but I am finding more and more that want to become gay friendly.

Thank you, New York Times. And all the LGBT and ally youth that are moving us forward.

— Shane Windmeyer, Founder & Executive Director of Campus Pride

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