U. delegates attend high school LGBT fair in California

The fair, organized by Campus Pride, a national nonprofit organization that assesses the gay-friendliness of university campuses, was held in San Diego, Calif. A similar fair took place in December on the Penn campus.

“The fair is a way for colleges to come out and show how gay-friendly they are,” Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer said.

“It’s significant for people in high school to know what Princeton has to offer them,” LGBT Center Director Debbie Bazarsky said. “This provides an opportunity for students to find colleges that fit their needs as well as find out how they support LGBT students.”

A University admissions officer attended the Philadelphia fair in December along with Bazarsky and a current student. Though no admissions officer was able to travel to San Diego, a local alumnus was there to represent the University.

Nour Aoude ’10, a member of Princeton Pride Alliance, said attending an LGBT college fair while in high school would have been useful. “One of my big concerns coming to Princeton was that it would be too conservative,” he said. “But going to something like this would have given me a more accurate view.”

“The colleges present at these fairs have made a commitment that they value LGBT students,” Windmeyer said.

Jonathan Hwang ’09, Anscombe Society president, said he was fine with the University sending representatives to the LGBT fair but added that the University should recognize that the Center does not fulfill the needs of all LGBT students. “LGBT students who would desire to live chaste lives will find it difficult to find University support here,” he said. “I feel that the University should address this issue if it is seeking to draw more LGBT students to Princeton,” he said.

About 60 high school students, mostly sophomores and juniors, attended the fair in San Diego, along with their families.

Campus Pride also runs an online Campus Climate Index that assesses the LGBT-friendliness of 152 colleges. Princeton scores a 4.5 out of 5 on the scale. Scores are based on information submitted by the proper university officials, which includes whether the college has an LGBT center, addresses LGBT issues and plans LGBT events, among other factors. The University did not receive a full score because it does not offer LGBT housing, LGBT studies or insurance coverage for people transitioning from one sex to another.

“Colleges have always used the excuse that they cannot tell who is gay and who is straight,” Windmeyer said. “But the fairs and the index finally allow colleges to recruit gay and lesbian students in a visible way.”

“More and more youth today are coming out in high school,” he noted, explaining that this makes these resources increasingly relevant.

Bazarsky has also observed a significant increase in students coming to Princeton already out of the closet. Five years ago, she started a group to support first-year LGBT students.

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“I was even seeing students who were out in high school coming to Princeton and retreating back into the closet, which was disturbing to me and confusing to me,” Bazarsky said.

“Society has changed,” Bazarsky noted. “This generation of students, the ones applying to college now, have always known gay and lesbian characters on television. Many people are coming to college with people in their family who are out, who had gay-straight alliances in their high schools.”

Windmeyer stressed that these fairs are not only about supporting LGBT youth.

“In today’s society, more and more straight youth are looking for colleges that are LGBT-friendly,” Windmeyer said. “They have loved ones who are gay, or maybe parents who are gay, and they don’t want to go to a college where their loved ones wouldn’t feel welcome.”

Though a number of LGBT admissions fairs have previously been held in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., these were more regional in scope, Bazarsky said. Campus Pride plans on holding two or three fairs next year.

“There are admissions fairs for all kinds of things — engineering college fairs, Latino college fairs — and the fact that there are now national LGBT college fairs is significant and helpful for students looking for schools,” Bazarsky said.