When prospective students peruse college applications, they are confronted with a litany of questions. They’re asked to list their extracurricular activities, awards, family military service, ethnicity, race and sometimes religious beliefs. All of these questions are used by admissions officers to help create a class of students that is both qualified and diverse. But applications have never asked about sexuality. That should soon change.
The University of Pennsylvania has begun to reach out to gay admitted students by identifying those who have indicated that gay issues are important to them through their application (for example, personal essays). For years, universities have had black students contact black admits, engineering majors contact engineering admits and Honors students contact Honors admits. These contacts help make a big, scary campus seem more safe and welcoming. At Penn, gay students may contact gay admits to create a similar effect. While this is an admirable step in the right direction, it doesn’t go far enough.
According to Inside Higher Ed, no undergraduate application contains an optional question about sexual orientation. This university should lead the way in becoming the first. This is a university that prides itself on its diverse student body, and last semester’s protests showed it’s an issue many students pride themselves on. By including a question that allows students to identify whether they are gay, bisexual or transgender the university would attract students looking for a gay-friendly campus and welcome those who might otherwise feel compelled to hide who they are.
LGBT Americans are the last to receive equal rights under the law. They still are not allowed to marry in 44 states, even though most politicians would agree separate is not equal. They still cannot serve openly in the military. And they lack a true leading voice for their movement. While these are national issues that no question on a college application can solve, the lack of a question regarding sexual orientation symbolizes how that portion of the population is viewed.
Such a question would likely make some applicants worry, even if it were optional. For a high school senior to self-identify on paper as belonging to one of the most discriminated against minorities in the country could be nerve-wracking and lead many to wonder if it would help or hurt their chances of getting in. But this stigma will never be erased as long as homosexuality is treated as something to be ashamed of, much as it is in the absence of such a question.
That said, it must be noted that many universities use questions regarding race to ensure adequate enrollment of populations that are often underrepresented on campuses, such as blacks and Latinos. It’s difficult to say whether or not LGBT students are underrepresented mainly because of the fear of self-identifying as such on paper. But even if sexual orientation is not used for the same purposes as racial identification, gay people are still part of the diversity of the university and such a question expresses inclusion. Just as having a diverse student body in terms of race and gender benefits the university by bringing a wide variety of perspectives together, LGBT students bring a different set of questions, judgments and life experiences to the classroom and having a significant population of them helps improve the education of all students.
Now more than ever, administrators strive to provide a campus that is inclusive and diverse. While some may carp on preferential treatment for one group over another, true equality is not achieved without acceptance. And acceptance cannot be achieved without adequate representation. The university has an opportunity to mold a campus and a generation of Americans that is not only diverse on paper, but truly accepting of the people around them, including gay students. And a simple question on a application is a good place to start.
