The University of Pennsylvania's admissions office is making history. This year, after those highly anticipated fat envelopes get mailed out, some students will receive an additional letter telling them about the vibrant queer community at Penn.

In an initiative to recruit more LGBTQ and Ally students, their campus organization the Lambda Alliance has teamed up with the school's admissions officers. According to this article which appeared in Penn's student newspaper yesterday, if an accepted student's admissions file reveals that they are a strong ally or if they come out in their personal statement, the admissions office will flag the files. These flagged files will then be sent a letter that is currently being crafted by the Lambda Alliance Vice Chairman for Communications Julia Moon. Students who write that they have not yet come out to their family or that they aren't comfortable with public knowledge of their sexuality will not be sent a letter.

This technique has long been employed by the University for racial and ethnic minority students, but this is the first time they will reach out to LGBT students specifically.

What do you think about this?

Do you think it's helpful, or an invasion of privacy?

Were concerns about LGBT life factored into your college decision?

Has your organization ever thought about approaching the admissions office?

Does your admissions office have up-to-date information about LGBT life at your school? Do they have pamphlets about your organization (if you have them)? Queer student representation at prospective or accepted student events?

Thinking of transferring or know any high school students?

I remember being nervous as I sat there with my study abroad advisor. It was our final meeting. After months and months of meeting for advice on figuring out where I wanted to study, looking over final applications for programs and scholarships, helping me to get all of my forms and vaccines in order, it was our final check-in before I would be on an airplane to Tanzania. "There is one last thing," I nervously piped up after we'd gone over all of the checklists. "I...I'm kinda nervous about having a girlfriend while I'm abroad." Holly and I had only gotten back together in the last month of school, and I had only recently started thinking about what it would mean to have a girlfriend in a country that has a language without a word for lesbian and where male homosexuality is illegal--there was even a case of a European man being deported! None of this was going to stop me; I figured that our once-a-week phone calls would be private enough, and that I could pass off the picture of the two of us I kept by my bed as a picture of my "friend." Mostly, I couldn't believe this was a position I was actually in. I felt a lot of anger about having to step into a closet I had never even had to be in for that long. But, I also knew this was just part of the experience, one more opportunity in cross-cultural learning. And in the end, it made me grateful for the ability to be out and proud and makes it only that more important to create safe spaces for LGBTQ people.