The LGBT Equity Center in Marie Mount Hall.

When Sam Sauter was applying to colleges, she looked mainly at a school’s academics. A campus’s level of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion wasn’t a factor, which is something Sauter, who identifies as asexual, finds humorous now.

The senior, who is president of both the Pride Alliance and the Lavender Leadership Honor Society, which recognizes contributions to the LGBTQ community, said she’s focused a huge part of her college career on just that.

“It’s funny that it wasn’t something that I thought of … but now that I’m here, it is something very important to consider,” said Sauter, an environmental science and policy major. “I am glad I came to Maryland because of its diversity.”

For the third year in a row, the University of Maryland was included on Campus Pride’s list of the top 50 LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities nationwide. The university landed in this year’s top-25 list, which was released last month and includes five other Big Ten institutions.

Campus Pride is a national nonprofit organization focused on empowering and supporting LGBTQ youth on college campuses, said Rebby Kern, the group’s media and communications and programming manager.

“We are very proud of UMD and look forward to working with each of these [top-25] campuses in the future,” Kern said.

The campuses on the list are not ranked, and this university received 4.5 out of 5 on the rating scale.

“The top 25 is based on the Campus Pride Index, which is a self-assessment survey for campuses to take to rate themselves on their LGBTQ friendliness and inclusion through programs, policies and practices,” Kern said.

This past year, the survey questions were more detailed and thorough, said Nick Sakurai, the director of leadership initiatives at this university’s LGBT Equity Center.

“It’s not just questions about the center, it’s questions about [the Department of Resident] Life, about campus safety, academics and many other areas,” Sakurai said. “You can’t rate well on this index unless it’s a campuswide thing.”

This university’s responses showcase its dedication to LGBTQ college students, Kern said.

“I am very glad we have a list like this just so that people can see that colleges are consistently doing things to help the [LGBTQ] community,” Sauter said.

It’s important that this university is providing resources to the LGBTQ community and receiving recognition for it, Sauter said.

“Something that I like about Pride Alliance is that we used to not have a group for asexual students and now we do,” Sauter said. “Seeing more and more students coming out and there being more of demand for certain things and us being able to provide that is really great.”

But there is always more work to be done, Sakurai said.

“The reality is students are still struggling to find a community and safety,” Sakurai said. “I think we are able to provide that in many cases, but we still have gaps.”