Huffington Post names IU a top GLBT-friendly campus

IU is one of the nation’s top 25 most GLBT-friendly colleges, according to a list released Wednesday by the nonprofit organization Campus Pride and the Huffington Post.

“I’m not entirely surprised because we work very hard at making this a friendly campus, and we get lots of support,” said Doug Bauder, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services coordinator.

He added that Executive Director of Campus Pride Shane Windmeyer is also an IU alumnus.

Bauder remembers working with Windmeyer in the late 1990s while Windmeyer was completing his master’s degree in education.

“But that doesn’t put us in a higher position,” Bauder said. “He’s tougher on all
of us.”

Because of Windmeyer’s work, Bauder said, other colleges and universities have shifted focus to their own GLBT support services.

“We were one of the first schools to have an office like this,” he said. “Over the years, I bet we have consulted with at least 200 colleges around the country about how to establish a service like
this.”

The Gay-Straight Alliance Network and similar programs have gained traction in high schools in recent years, in conjunction with an increasing number of students coming out during high school. Because of this, many students take into account a campus’s GLBT programs when selecting a college, Bauder said.

Sophomore Jeffrey Hunnicutt, an office assistant at GLBT SSS, said he partially considered IU’s programs when choosing a school.

“I knew that I wanted to go to a school that was accepting, and there were services to help people struggling with that issue,” he said.

Hunnicutt works to plan programs like the ones that contributed to IU’s title as a GLBT-friendly campus, such as Friday Night Bagels at Bloomington Bagel
Company.

Bauder said an important factor in the office’s success has been its collaboration with other cultural centers, academic departments and student groups.

Later this year, for example, GLBT SSS will partner with the Department of Sociology to bring author and lecturer Chaz Bono to campus.

Despite IU’s recent recognition, Bauder said there are still issues the campus can improve upon, particularly those involving University interaction with transgender students.

This includes issues of living accommodations, which Bauder said the University is just beginning to address, as well as gender-neutral bathrooms in campus buildings and quicker updates of records for students who undergo a gender transition during college.

“We’re still learning,” Bauder said. “But this is a great place to do that.”