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Success for LGBT College and University Students

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Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy

Abstract

Though evidence suggests that the climate for LGBT college and university students has improved in many regions of the world over the last decade, there is still ample reason to believe that LGBT students face challenges to their learning, development, and success. Studies show that LGBT students encounter hostile climates at higher rates than do non-LGBT peers, and LGBT students who are also students of color, students with disabilities, and/or low-income or first-generation college students must overcome substantial barriers to success. There is also evidence that campuses are creating environments where LGBT students can thrive personally, socially, and academically. In this chapter, I present findings from national studies of LGBT college and university students in the US to describe the current landscape for these students. I present a theory of thriving that explains how students express agency in coping with sometimes hostile environments, and I discuss strategies for faculty and university staff to create optimal conditions for LGBT student success.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    College, university, postsecondary and tertiary are all terms used with the word students to identify people enrolled in educational institutions beyond secondary level. In the US, the terms college students and university students mean the same thing; often a literature search will yield more returns using ‘college students.’ In other countries, college specifically refers to an institution that does not grant degrees bachelor’s level and above, sometimes called community or technical college. In this chapter, I use college student and university student interchangeably to indicate any student in an educational institution higher than secondary level.

  2. 2.

    Terms for people minoritized by gender identity and sexual orientation vary over time and region. Throughout this chapter I will use the terms that the original author used.

  3. 3.

    The term queer has historically been used in a derogatory way. It has been reclaimed in some regions, particularly in the English-speaking Global North, as a sign of empowerment and pride (Jagose, 1996). In this chapter I use it when the sources from which I am citing use it. In the case of the study cited here, the term ‘queer-spectrum’ was used to encompass sexual orientations including lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and others that are not strictly heterosexual.

  4. 4.

    A number of factors contribute to this difference, including: US campuses typically have administrative offices charged with managing out-of-class environments for students; attrition from higher education is about 40% in the US, and campuses have identified sense of belonging and climate as factors in retention; a tradition of studying campus climate for women and for racial/ethnic minorities has spread to other identities (for example, LGBT, students with disabilities, international students). See Hart and Fellabaum (2008) for a discussion of campus climate studies.

  5. 5.

    The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 2017; Undergraduate Student Experience at the Research University (SERU) 2017; American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA) 2016; and four surveys from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) 2016. This analysis was made possible by the recent inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity on these surveys that are distributed to thousands of college students each year.

  6. 6.

    They used Pascarella and Terenzini’s (1983) seven-item, Liker-type Academic and Intellectual Development sub-scale from their Institutional Integration Scale. Sample items include ‘I am performing up to my full academic potential,’ ‘I am satisfied with the extent of my intellectual development since enrolling at [institution],’ and ‘My interest in ideas and intellectual matters has increased since coming to [institution]’ (Garvey, Squire, et al., 2018, Table 1).

  7. 7.

    The Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals offers several program examples and guidelines for speakers bureaus at http://architect.lgbtcampus.org/peer_education_and_speakers_bureau. Also see speakers bureau examples from Iowa State (https://center.dso.iastate.edu/programs/panels), State University of New York at Albany (https://www.albany.edu/lgbt/38104.php), and Ohio State (https://mcc.osu.edu/education-and-training/lgbtq-education-dialogues-programs/).

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  1. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Kristen A. Renn

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Correspondence to Kristen A. Renn .

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  1. School of Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

    Gail Crimmins

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Renn, K.A. (2020). Success for LGBT College and University Students. In: Crimmins, G. (eds) Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43593-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43593-6_10

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