Assessing the Campus Climate for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Students Using a Multiple Perspectives Approach

In this study we compared perceptions of the campus climate for GLBT students from surveys returned by 80 GLBT students, 253 general students, 126 faculty members, 41 student affairs staff members, and 105 residence hall assistants. A snowball sampling strategy was used to collect GLBT student responses, all residence hall assistants were surveyed, and a stratified random sampling process was used for faculty, student affairs staff, and general students. Some survey scales were common across all groups and some were unique to each group. They focused on knowledge, interest, and involvement in GLBT topics, attitudes toward GLBT persons and issues, and perceptions of the campus climate. The authors believe the results suggest that sufficient differences exist across and within (sex and class for students, sex and academic discipline for faculty) campus community groups to warrant using a multiple perspectives approach when assessing the campus climate for GLBT students.