“This year we’ve seen some of the most creative and effective initiatives ever among our competing schools,” said Joanne Sprague, Re-Founder and CEO of Friendfactor. “Columbia’s standout results, with over 60% of their student body engaged as active allies to the LGBT community, have placed their school’s ally initiative at the top of the list for the 2nd year running. We congratulate Columbia on this year’s stellar performance and all 12 of our participating programs for fostering an open and welcoming campus environment for all students.”
The Friendfactor MBA Ally Challenge is a friendly competition among business schools to build the largest and most impactful ally initiatives they can over the course of the school year. Participating schools are evaluated on three criteria including percentage of the student body participating, number of ally-focused events or campaigns executed, and outcomes of a campus inclusion survey that measures LGBT awareness and campus climate. Twelve of Businessweek’s top 20 US business schools participated in the 2013-2014 Challenge, engaging over 4,300 MBA students and generating more than 100 events and campaigns.
As a result, campus culture improved such that 62% of LGBT students at the participating schools reported feeling comfortable being out to everyone on campus at the end of the year - an increase of nearly 50% from the 42% who were fully out at the beginning of the year, and far above the national workplace average of 47% as reported by the Human Rights Campaign.
“An overwhelming plurality of straight people support LGBT equality, but very few turn that support into action to bring about change and acceptance in our culture. The participants in the MBA Ally Challenge are turning these passive supporters into active allies, and they’re ushering in a new generation of campus and workplace culture that will enable every American to bring their full self to work,” concluded Ms. Sprague.
