The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan has gotten more of its student body involved to help foster an LGBT-inclusive campus culture than any other top business school, according to initial standings released last week for the MBA Ally Challenge. The year-long competition, launched by nonprofit Friendfactor, is part of the organization’s larger effort to encourage straight people to become visible and active allies in their workplace and campus communities.
Twelve of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s top-20-ranked MBA programs have taken on the MBA Ally Challenge, and together they have activated more than 1,800 students since this year’s challenge kicked off in late August. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and MIT Sloan School of Management trail Ross in second and third places, respectively.
As part of the challenge, schools’ efforts to activate their student bodies are ranked on three criteria: the number of students involved, the number of activities they execute and their results on a survey that measures LGBT awareness and the inclusiveness of campus culture. To help make it clear that LGBT students are welcome and supported on their campuses, participating schools have done everything from draping their student centers in rainbow flags to organizing inter-section competitions to partnering with local LGBT community groups.
Other participating MBA programs include Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Dartmouth College’s Tuck School, the University of Virginia’s Darden School, Duke University’s Fuqua School, the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School, Carnegie Mellon University’ Tepper School and UCLA’s Anderson School. The competition will continue throughout the school year, and final results will be announced in May.
Check out participating schools’ current standings in the MBA Ally Challenge.
