Tufts, UMASS Amherst named among 20 best LGBT campuses

[LostInTime]

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The Advocate College Guide, the first college reference book for LGBT students, rates the schools' policies, social organizations, support and healthcare resources, LGBT studies curricula, housing options, campus safety and general atmosphere for 'out' students and faculty. The Guide was released Aug. 1.

The book's author, Shane L. Windmeyer, believes the Guide does a better job of evaluating campus attitudes towards LGBT students than mainstream college-ranking books do. "The only thing that's ever been out there ... has been the Princeton Review," he says, "and the Princeton Review asks one question and it asks that of all the students on the campus." The result, he says, is that primarily straight students end up deciding whether the campus is friendly to their LGBT peers. For Windmeyer's book, surveys sought only LGBT students' and faculty members' opinions.