[RSCT] Majority of Illinois Colleges and Universities Flunk LGBTQ Equity

[Therese Quinn]

For Immediate Release 
January 16th, 2009
Contact: Shannon Sullivan, 773/895-3279, shannon at illinoissafeschools.org
 
Majority of Illinois Colleges and Universities Flunk LGBTQ Equity 

Chicago - The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (the Alliance) just released
Visibility Matters, the first statewide report card on LGBTQ presence in higher
education and teacher preparation in Illinois. This landmark report examines the
inclusion of sexual orientation (SO) and gender identity (GI) in university
policies related to anti-discrimination and in student codes of conduct, and
for SO and GI specifically in teacher education programs. Seventy-two percent,
or forty-one out the state’s fifty-seven teacher education preparation
programs, received a failing grade of F. 

“Our taskforce is composed of researchers and scholars from Illinois
universities,” states Associate Professor Erica Meiners, Professor of Education
and Women’s Studies at Northeastern Illinois University and member of the
Pre-Professional Project of the Alliance that authored the report. “We
evaluated these programs based on the web because prospective teacher education
students research potential programs via the internet and want to know how
programs include and address LGBTQ communities.”  

The report will be sent to university and college presidents across the state,
and to the heads of teacher preparation programs. 

“This project,” states Therese Quinn, Associate Professor of Education at the
School of the Art Institute and member of the Pre-Professional Project, “aims
to educate universities and colleges across Illinois that LGBTQ visibility and
policies matter. We welcome amendments to this report. We are not interested in
failing grades as an end-point; instead, this report shows where institutions
can improve.” 

The report offers a number of recommendations to improve grades, to strengthen
policies and to increase LGBTQ visibility. Stacey Horn, Associate Professor at
the University of Illinois at Chicago, the sole institution to receive an A,
acknowledges that, “We expect teacher education programs to address all
components of diversity – race, gender, ethnicity – and that sexual orientation
and gender identity are also important aspects of the diversity picture.”

The full report, Visibility Matters: Higher Education and Teacher Preparation in
Illinois: A Web-based Assessment of LGBTQ Presence, is available online at
www.illinoissafeschools.org.  

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-- 
Therese Quinn, Associate Professor of Art Education
Undergraduate Division Chair
37 S. Wabash Avenue
Chicago IL 60603
(312) 759-1448 PH, (312) 899-1477 FX
tquinn at saic.edu
http://therese-othereye.blogspot.com/