Rutgers U. Gets Top Rating by Campus Pride

***** Rating
Last week, Campus Pride, an organization that rates schools by the inclusiveness of their policies, gave Rutgers’s New Brunswick’s main campus *****. Rutgers scored 31 out of the 32 possible categories in which a school can distinguish itself.

College WAS famous for Homophobia Just Two Years Ago

A Rutgers freshman named Tyler Clementi committed suicide after he learned that his roommate Dharun Ravi mocked his sexuality by spying on him and another man having sex, recording it, and inviting friends to watch the recording. This 2010 tragedy brought the college national negative attention and his roommate a 30-day jail sentence.

GLBTQ Services Have been Expanded

Although Rutgers was one of two student groups in the U.S. in 1969 to have a gay student league ( “Rutgers Homophile League”), since September 22, 2010 when Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge, the college has been trying to improve its tarnished image.

The Support that GLBTQ Rutgers Students Can Expect

  • Four specialized housing options, three of them new.
  • A service to pair students with like-minded roommates.
  • Rainbow Perspectives, a floor in a residence hall organized around common interests. It’s not just for GLBTQ students, but also heterosexuals who like living side-by-side with those of different gender identities.
  • Delta Lambda Phi, a predominantly gay fraternity.
  • Official campus liaisons consisting of 130 trained staff and faculty members.
  • Training program for allies meant to be friendly to GLBTQ causes.

Campus Resources for “queer issues” is 92 pages long in the 2012 handbook.

 Increase in Resources Attributed to Suicide

The New York Times on September 22, 2012, “Rutgers, Tainted by Webcam Spying Case, Expands Campus Services, claims that since Clementi’s suicide on September 22, 2010,  “the university has increased its efforts, propelled by a vocal campus community, an energetic administrator and an urgent need for damage control. Even some of the students have been startled by the strength of the Rutgers’s embrace.”