As an Admissions Office intern and a member of the LGBTQA community, I am disappointed by Roger Lott's ignorant misrepresentation of LGBTQA recruitment at Dartmouth and his implied desire to match the number of incoming students who identify as such to national demographics expressed in his Monday column ("Learning to Live Together," Oct. 10).
First, I have no idea which "extensive admissions outreach efforts" he refers to in his editorial, nor have I ever heard of or been involved in "efforts [that rely] on gay students to recruit gay applicants." Lott's claims bear no semblance to Admissions Office policy. The Office does allow applicants to indicate interest in the LGBTQA community or gender issues, and sends a letter as well as hosts an online video forum for those admitted students post-acceptance.
This effort matches those for students who express interest in other communities. During last year's day-long "Chatapalooza," the Admissions Office also hosted forums focusing on the African American, Latino/a, Asian American and International communities, as well as specific parts of campus life such as the arts, religious life and service. While efforts are made to reach LGBTQA and other communities, there is no inter-student recruitment of the type mentioned by Lott, nor does LGBTQA recruitment vary significantly relative to that of other groups. The Admissions Office seeks to connect prospective students with current students who have similar interests and experiences in as many ways as it can.
Furthermore, Lott implies that Dartmouth has surpassed the appropriate number of LGBTQA students on campus by over-representing them relative to national percentages. Not only do I find this idea repugnant, but it is also strikingly unfounded. Lott's argument suggests that Dartmouth's LGBTQA population, at just under 5 percent, dwarfs the national average of 1.7 percent. The College estimate Lott cites is five years old, and while it may have been accurate for its time, it might not be today. Regarding the national figure (drawn from a UCLA study), Lott either misread or misconstrued its conclusion. In the study, the 1.7 percent of gay and lesbian American adults Lott uses in his calculation exludes both the 1.8 percent of adults that identify as bisexual and 700,000 transgender Americans, bringing the total estimate of LGBTQA adults to about 4 percent.
More importantly, the survey focuses on adults, who occupy a generation with a very different set of stigmas and standards regarding LGBTQA status. Americans have notably begun identifying as LGBTQA at younger ages, as explored in the 2009 New York Times feature "Coming Out in Middle School." There is considerable doubt that the percentage of adults who self-identify as LGBTQA is representative of today's college-bound teens they belong to a generation that has seen the rise of Gay-Straight Alliances in schools and grown increasingly aware of sexuality and gender. It is conceivable, perhaps likely, that the percentage of American teens identifying as LGBTQA is greater than the 4 percent of adults found in the UCLA study.
Still, regardless of the actual figure, the Admissions Office does not and should not attempt to align Dartmouth classes to national demographics, nor could it ever hope to do so given the complexity and unpredictability of matriculation. The Office's job is to yield a set of students with diverse opinions, experiences and talents who can foster a healthy and dynamic educational environment throughout their Dartmouth careers. Sexual orientation and gender are just two facets of a student's identity and could never be the sole reason for admitting a student to Dartmouth. Demographic alignment hardly makes sense given the complex identities that Dartmouth students possess. Lott's suggestion of rolling back these reasonable outreach efforts contradicts his purported desire to treat students with equity regardless of their identities. Instituting a system linked to national percentages is unethical, impractical and offensive. In a world still rife with marginalization, never should applicants' sexual orientations or gender identities count against them in the admissions process.
The Admissions Office's balanced and fair recruitment efforts serve to bolster diversity at Dartmouth and go beyond simple classifications of sexuality and gender. I would encourage Lott to do more research before making such bold statements as those in his editorial.
