The possibility of adding a box indicating one’s sexual orientation on Columbia applications is under review by the University Senate.
Senators are currently doing research into how Columbia and its peer schools use information regarding sexual orientation, if at all, to determine if it would be useful for students to identify as LGBT on applications, according to Anjelica Kelly, Business ’13 and the Graduate School of Business senator, who introduced the initiative in the senate.
“We thought that it should be an optional resource that allows an applicant to self-identify,” said Alex Holiday, Business ’13, VP of outreach and recruiting of Cluster Q, the LGBT business association for graduate students. “In every application, there’s a sea of information on any given candidate, so why not have this self-identifying option?”
Earlier this year, Holiday approached the business school’s admissions office, which he said was very supportive, but University counsel told club leaders that adding an LGBT checkbox could be a liability, because such a checkbox is not federally mandated. The club decided to take the cause to the University Senate.
The Business School admissions office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
About two years ago, Cluster Q began talking about adding an LGBT checkbox to just the Business School’s application. When the senate agreed to deliberate on the measure, however, it opened the discussion to every school at Columbia.
“We think it should be optional for each school and that if they want, they should be able to do it,” Holiday said.
The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania has a self-identifying LGBT option on its application, and Harvard College was considering it as of November 2011, according to the Harvard Crimson.
“It would help to show groups who they need to reach out to, and with this you would be able to connect people with resources and in particular, really driving home the point that Columbia is LGBT-safe,” Holiday said.
Marita Inglehart, CC ’14 and president of the Columbia Queer Alliance, said that while she is supportive of the idea behind the initiative, the potential repercussions of the addition gives her and some CQA board members pause.
“One concern that we have is that it creates some kind of monolithic queer identity. Even the letters LGBTQ—each letter is a unique experience,” she said. One member of the CQA board, she said, thought it would be more appropriate to include a fill-in-the-blank option instead of a set list of choices, “just as a better way to self-identify.”
Other board members were concerned that, if the data were made public, it could inadvertently out students.
“I think it’s good to have a wide-range of information of what a person brings to Columbia and what their experiences have been,” Inglehart said. “I think it’s a good idea in the abstract, but I think it’d have to be very carefully applied.”
The initiative has the support from LGBT groups at Columbia Law School, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
“All we can be is hopeful about this,” Holiday said. “We think it’s helpful, just in terms of connecting applicants to the right people.”
jordan.freisleben@columbiaspectator.com
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Created: Thursday 26 April 2012 06:29am
Updated: Thursday 26 April 2012 06:29am
Article source: http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/04/26/lgbt-option-considered-applications
Tags: LGBT news