LGBT college group Campus Pride rated a Pennsylvania college among the top religiously affiliated colleges in the country. Muhlenberg College, a small liberal-arts school in Allentown that is home to 2,225 students, was among the top seven on Campus Pride’s new list. The college received a 4.5 out of a potential score of five for LGBT-friendliness on Campus Pride’s index. In addition to Muhlenberg, other top-rated schools were Agnes Scott College, Baldwin-Wallace College, Elmhurst College, Georgetown University, Hamline University and Macalester College. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Karen Green, vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students at Muhlenberg, said that, in her seven-year tenure, “this has been a most welcoming community to students, faculty and staff who self-identify as a member of the LGBT community or are even questioning their identity. We have very engaged faculty who teach gender studies in addition to allowing the space to discuss the many ways that gender identity is expressed in society.” Green said one of the campus’ most defining LGBT-friendly features is its gender-neutral housing, which was pioneered by an openly gay student who worked with the LGBT coordinator, Office of Student Affairs and other student leaders to launch the housing initiative. Green said Muhlenberg is also home to innovative LGBT student programs such as Students for Queer Advocacy, which offers LGBT support, advocacy and programming. Anita Kelly, Muhlenberg’s LGBT coordinator and director for counseling services, has been at the college for 15 years, and said SQUAD has helped promote LGBT awareness on campus. “They are primarily an advocacy group versus a social group, so their goal is to make other students aware of issues and concerns and I think they do a very good job in doing that,” Kelly said. “They have different programs throughout each semester and their big programming is during their Queer Week, where they do a lot more of awareness and present more information.” Kelly noted that Muhlenberg’s LGBT-accepting environment was first championed by a former leader. “Our former president started creating that atmosphere and it has progressed. He started with domestic partner benefits before anyone else was doing it. He was a visionary,” she said. “We also have a large contingency of LGBT faculty, staff and administrators. We are a very open and accepting and nonjudgmental environment.” Muhlenberg also offers counseling services for LGBT and questioning students. College chaplain the Rev. Callista Isabelle said the Lutheran Church has a tradition of LGBT acceptance. The Muhlenberg chapel itself, she said, has been designated a Reconciling in Christ organization, signifying its LGBT acceptance, for a number of years. While the college has a strong record of LGBT policies and practices, Isabelle said, there is always more progress to be made. “Our work of welcoming and advocating for LGBT students is never complete,” she said. “There is always more we can do to help our LGBT students and other college community members find a place and a voice here.”
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