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Report says Oregon is home to hostile college campuses
Oregon House Bill passed March 25 aims to strengthen Oregon's current anti-bullying statute
Makenna Bishop
Issue date: 4/3/09 Section: News
While many people consider Oregon to be a fairly liberal and gay-friendly state, recent studies are now showing this might not be the case.
A coalition of advocacy groups recently released a series of reports, which described the bullying of students who are perceived as gay as a regular occurrence in Oregon.
The report is titled Too Afraid to Learn: Barriers to Post-Secondary Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender students and analyzes a survey of 3,500 Oregon college students.
The reports concluded that a hostile campus climate would be damaging to a bullied student's educational achievement.
Tash Shatz, who is part of the Oregon Students Equal Rights Alliance, said in a Salem-News press release that one in three gay and transgender students in Oregon claimed the hostile environment in their high school acted as a significant barrier to graduation.
Shatz also said that more than half of the gay and transgender college students concealed their sexual orientation or gender identity out of fear for their personal safety, discrimination or rejection.
On the contrary to this report, the OSU LGBT Outreach and Services' website proudly claims Oregon State as being one of the top LGBT-friendly campuses in the United States as published in The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students in 2006.
Josh Blakey, a senior in fisheries and wildlife, is the co-chair of the Rainbow Continuum, which is a LGBT social group on campus.
Blakey said he feels OSU is one of the most accepting campuses that he has ever been on. He said people here generally want to be open-minded and try to be more understanding of people's differences.
"I sometimes see discomfort and awkwardness in my fellow students regarding issues and discussions of sexuality and differing lifestyles, but I have never seen any outright hostility," Blakey said.
The new report makes several recommendations of overcoming potentially hostile environments on college campuses, such as providing inclusive and informative services and safe housing for LGBT students.
A coalition of advocacy groups recently released a series of reports, which described the bullying of students who are perceived as gay as a regular occurrence in Oregon.
The report is titled Too Afraid to Learn: Barriers to Post-Secondary Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender students and analyzes a survey of 3,500 Oregon college students.
The reports concluded that a hostile campus climate would be damaging to a bullied student's educational achievement.
Tash Shatz, who is part of the Oregon Students Equal Rights Alliance, said in a Salem-News press release that one in three gay and transgender students in Oregon claimed the hostile environment in their high school acted as a significant barrier to graduation.
Shatz also said that more than half of the gay and transgender college students concealed their sexual orientation or gender identity out of fear for their personal safety, discrimination or rejection.
On the contrary to this report, the OSU LGBT Outreach and Services' website proudly claims Oregon State as being one of the top LGBT-friendly campuses in the United States as published in The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students in 2006.
Josh Blakey, a senior in fisheries and wildlife, is the co-chair of the Rainbow Continuum, which is a LGBT social group on campus.
Blakey said he feels OSU is one of the most accepting campuses that he has ever been on. He said people here generally want to be open-minded and try to be more understanding of people's differences.
"I sometimes see discomfort and awkwardness in my fellow students regarding issues and discussions of sexuality and differing lifestyles, but I have never seen any outright hostility," Blakey said.
The new report makes several recommendations of overcoming potentially hostile environments on college campuses, such as providing inclusive and informative services and safe housing for LGBT students.
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