To recruit more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and ally students to Penn, the LGBT Center and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions have begun reaching out to Gay-Straight Alliance groups at local Philadelphia high schools.
Bob Schoenberg, director of Penn's LGBT Center, said the center has been working with the Admissions Office for several years to recruit more "LGBT and LGBT-friendly" students.
In the past, these outreach attempts have included representing Penn at LGBT college fairs and training Kite and Key tour guides to emphasize the availability of LGBT student resources.
Now the LGBT Center and the Admissions Office have begun sending invitations to members of local GSAs to visit during QPenn, Penn's annual LGBT student-pride and -awareness week.
The outreach works to recruit students who have self-identified as LGBT or allies and to gain demographic information for at least some of each incoming class' LGBT students, said Schoenberg.
Jordan Pascucci, assistant director of on-campus programs in Undergraduate Admissions, is working with Schoenberg on the GSA outreach program.
She explained that this idea has been developing over the last several months, which is why the Admissions Office has only reached out to local GSAs so far.
With the help of the Mazzoni Center, an LGBT health center in Philadelphia, and Ninah Harris, the building and program coordinator of Penn's LGBT Center, Pascucci has contacted GSA chapters and guidance offices in all Philadelphia public schools. She sent each an e-mail explaining a visiting opportunity that combines LGBT life at Penn with admissions information.
"It's just about making sure all students know that they're a priority," said Pascucci.
Because potential students have no way to self-identify as LGBT except in application essays, there is no way to glean information about an incoming class' sexual orientation and gender-identity profile, while campus cultural centers - like the Pan-Asian American Community House and Makuu, the center for black students - can get this demographic information and easily welcome incoming students as a result.
"We have no way of knowing what the current census of LGBT students is at Penn," said Schoenberg.
There has been much national debate over the last several years over whether to put a question regarding sexual orientation or gender identity on individual college applications or the Common Application, which is used by hundreds of schools.
This kind of self-identifying question could potentially pose problems, especially for students who have not yet not come out to parents or the college advisors who review their applications.
Without such a question, however, it is difficult to find high-school-aged LGBT students to recruit, said Schoenberg.
