PSU 5Star LGBTQ Community

Penn State has been recognized as one of the nation’s friendliest universities to the LGBTQ community.

Campus Pride, a national nonprofit, recently named Penn State among the country’s 40 most LGBTQ-friendly campuses on its annual “Best of the Best” list based on criteria from 50-plus questions. The organization offered the university a perfect overall five-star score on its Campus Pride Index, along with six other Big Ten schools in Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue and Rutgers.

Penn State was rated on eight different LGBTQ subsets, from policy inclusion to recruitment and retention. Here’s a further breakdown of the university’s report card:

LGBTQ Policy Inclusion: 4.5 stars

LGBTQ Support & Institutional Commitment: 5 stars

LGBTQ Academic Life: 4.5 stars

LGBTQ Student Life: 5 stars

LGBTQ Housing & Residence Life: 4.5 stars

LGBTQ Campus Safety: 5 stars

LGBTQ Counseling & Health: 5 stars

LGBTQ Recruitment & Retention Efforts: 4.5 stars

Three anonymous students and one anonymous employee praised the university on Campus Pride, with one Chinese International gay graduate student writing, “I feel like I found a place in the center where I can be myself and feel like I am at home. There is a community here for me.”