Earlier today, we posted a bit on a great discussion our student leaders had at Campus Pride's Queer It Up Youth Leadership Action Institute yesterday at Creating Change, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's annual conference being held this weekend in Balitmore, Md.

The students talked at length on a variety of challenges they were experiencing on their campuses. In part one of the blog post, we explored students' thoughts on program collaboration with campus allies and partners, trans inclusion in student groups and on campus and group cohesion and internal issues.

We'll move on to the students' last two major concerns now: dealing with conservative and religious groups on campus and finding campus resources for fundraising and programming.

Read the rest after the jump...

The Campus Pride crew is in the Charm City this weekend for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating Change conference, the largest gathering of LGBT and progressive activists across the country. Baltimore has welcomed us with open arms and we're each excited to be meeting and engaging with so many friends, new and old.

We had a phenomenal day at Campus Pride's day-long pre-conference for LGBT college and university students yesterday, our Queer It Up Youth Leadership Action Institute. MOre than 40 student leaders joined us for a full day of networking, learning, brainstorming and fun.

(Photo right: Students in a small group discuss one of the major challenges facing their campuses.)

As we've done at past Creating Change events, we spent a good chunk of our afternoon discussing the greatest challenges student leaders find themselves facing on their campuses and within their LGBT student organizations. Breaking our students up into five groups, we tackled five major discussion topics that encompass their own set of challenges and opportunities unique to each campus. The students -- representing everything from small, rural schools to large and well-known state schools -- came up with some interesting solutions, tips and tricks.

Here are some of the highlights on three of the topics: program collaboration with campus allies and partners, trans inclusion in student groups and on campus and group cohesion and internal issues. Join us back here later today at the Campus Pride Blog for a longer post on the last two: dealing with conservative and religious groups on campus and finding campus resources for fundraising and programming.

Continue reading after the jump...

With each week that passes, I read of another college campus that is either looking into or implementing changes to current policies in order to enhance trans-inclusion on campus. I posted a blog in late July about USF offering trans-inclusive housing, this blog is now an update of campuses that I've found have recently made steps in a positive direction for their transgender students.

I was happy to see another college in the Midwest begin making improvements to their housing policy when I read that Grand Valley State University in Michigan has added "gender neutral" as an option to the student's housing form. The article stated, "students can now request a specific person to room with regardless of gender, or be matched with others who check the option.' The article noted that 50 small-universities nation-wide now have a gender-neutral or gender-blind policy in order to improve students sense of safety within their housing structures. UCLA also announced this week that they are looking into this policy as well.

In bigger news, I've now learned of three Universities that have passed student health insurance plans which will include coverage of transition related needs, meaning therapy, hormones and surgeries needed for treatment of GID (Gender Identity Disorder). While attending WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia three weeks ago the President of the college spoke about the process their campus went through to include transition-related health coverage within their student policy for Fall of 2011.