Duke Magazine, the alumni magazine published by Duke University and presumably sent to all alumni, featured an eight page assessment of Duke’s GLBT-friendliness in its March-April 2008 issue.

The piece generally lauded Duke’s work to provide a welcoming environment for gay graduates and undergraduates. Most of these efforts center around the pioneering efforts to provide quality counseling to GLBT students and the development of a gay student center (with a former therapist at the helm.) Duke has also hosted the North Carolina Pride Festival every year since 2001.

On the other hand, the article did a nice job of pointing out that not all is rosy at the Durham, North Carolina campus for gay students. There are GLBT student groups for undergrads, law students, business students, pre-med students and others, but they rarely work with each other. Some students report being out in high school, but going back in the closet at Duke. Many students feel compelled to keep their sexuality a nearly clandestine part of their lives for fear that being “too out” will earn them the label of “queer activist.”

CALL FOR RESPONSE: Were you out in college? How did you feel about being out? Leave your comment on this article!

I went to Duke University in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I was not out, even to myself, at that time. Given my knowledge of the campus culture, which I am sure has changed only a little in 20 years, this article gives me hope. I love the school and I love the education I received there. Yet, Duke is far right of the liberal university tradition associated with Berkeley or Portland’s Reed College. The seemingly small gains made at the university signify tremendous progress at a decidedly Southern school mostly populated by the sons and daughter of east coast privilege.

I am particularly impressed - and even puzzled - by the university’s bold decision to feature the article in a magazine to alumni. Duke, like any major university, is expected to embrace some progressive change, but that rarely stretches to include alumni. Duke alumni are an especially conservative lot, having been processed through one of the most effective how-to-keep-the-family-fortune machines in all of America. I would love to read ALL of the hate mail they will receive and then what they actually decide to print. Some alumni may be outed as being far less forward thinking than their alma mater!

So…hats off to Duke university - a place where the administration seems more progressive on gay issues than the students. Let’s just hope that the future of gay support at Duke moves beyond counseling to real change. How about gender-neutral housing?

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