UW-Green Bay named Top 25 LGBTQ-friendly, for third consecutive year
University is one of only two UW campuses named in Campus Pride’s Top 25 List
Green Bay, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay prides itself on being a welcoming, friendly, inclusive community. For the third straight year, it was recognized as such, having been named to the list of top 25 colleges and universities leading the way for LGBTQ inclusion in policies, programs and practices across the United States. Campus Pride is the ranking organization. In the UW System, only UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay made the Top 25 list.
“The Campus Pride Index average for UW-Green Bay across categories last year was a 4.5,” said Stacie Christian, Director of the Inclusive Excellence and the Pride Center. “This year the average is 5.0. We saw an improved rating for health and counseling because of the increase in social/support groups for students in the Pride Center. As a campus, our rating improved in academic areas because of the implementation of the new LGBTQ Certificate. At this point of time, 27 employees have earned and received the Level 1 Inclusivity and Equity Certificate.”
Christian said that she believes the campus climate is improving and there are more initiatives for employees and students to learn how to make the campus more inclusive such as “Inclusivity Fellowship” in which 10 faculty are each working on making one of their classes more inclusive, and the “Democratic Dialogues Fellowship” in which nearly 20 employees and students spent two days focusing on how to lead difficult and controversial discussions so participants are included, not excluded, in the discussions.
The full list of Top 25 universities can be viewed online at CampusPride.org/Top25
Campus Pride works alongside students, faculty, staff and administrators at 1400+ campuses annually to help support and improve the quality of campus life for LGBTQ people. Campus Pride chose the twenty-five campuses this year based on their overall ratings on the Campus Pride Index and specific LGBTQ-inclusive benchmark measures. The Campus Pride Index, currently 300+ campuses, is the premier national benchmarking tool which self-assesses LGBTQ-friendly policies, programs and practices. The tool is free of charge and can be found online at CampusPrideIndex.org.
In order to be in the Top 25 listing, an institution had to score the highest percentages in the LGBTQ-friendly benchmarks for policies, programs and practices. The listing this year includes colleges from sixteen states including more conservative places like North Carolina, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Colorado, Wisconsin and Ohio. These campuses represent a range of academic studies with student populations from 807 to over 45,000, public and private schools alike.
About the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is a comprehensive public institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs to 7,300 students. The University transforms lives and communities through exceptional and award-winning teaching and research, innovative learning opportunities and a problem-solving approach to education. For more information, visit www.uwgb.edu.
