We came across this blog entry on LGBT issues at b-schools, published recently on the Huffington Post, and it definitely caught our interest. Friendfactor, the LGBT rights organization for straight friends founded in 2009, is conducting its second MBA Ally Challenge, a friendly competition among business schools to build as many impactful ally initiatives as they can over the course of the school year.
Six schools participated in 2012, and the number has doubled this year with 12 of the top 20 U.S. MBA programs participating. The organization says that as of October 2013, these schools have activated 1,800 students across their campuses, and they have over 100 ally activities planned for the 2013-2014 school year.
Participating MBA programs include Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia Business School, Kellogg School of Management, Chicago Booth School of Business, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, UV Darden School of Business, Michigan Ross School of Business, Duke-Fuqua School of Business, Kenan-Flagler Business School, Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, and the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
The MBA Ally Challenge ranks schools' efforts on three criteria: the number of students who participate, the number of activities with an ally-specific component they execute, and their results on a survey that measures LGBT awareness and the inclusiveness of campus culture.
Right now, the top spots are held by the Ross School, Kellogg, and MIT Sloan. Updates on the schools' progress will be posted by Friendfactor throughout the year, and the final results will be announced in May 2014.
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