Nobody likes getting an F, especially when they think it’s undeserved.

That’s how some NIU faculty members feel after the university received a failing grade in a recently released report by the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, a group dedicated to the safety and development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in Illinois.

The report, determined by looking at schools’ Web sites, graded the 57 Illinois universities with teacher education programs on the ways visible LGBTQ issues are approached in those programs and if sexual orientation and gender identity are mentioned in the institutions’ policies and teacher education programs’ conceptual frameworks.

The report’s intent is to shed light on the perceived inabilities of K-12 teachers to deal with the harassment of LGBTQ students. It comes in the wake of NIU being named one of the top 100 universities for LGBT students in 2006 by The Advocate, an LGBT magazine.

“I think it’s good that this organization that did the report is trying to build awareness about the need for the colleges to be preparing future teachers to deal with diversity in their classrooms,” said Margie Cook, director of the LGBT Resource Center. “At the same time, I think the report is flawed. It’s hard to tell if it’s an accurate reflection of what’s going on college campuses because all they did was look at Web sites.”

NIU shouldn’t feel too bad as 72 percent (41 out of 57) of the universities in the report failed. Only one, University of Illinois at Chicago, got an A while one received a B, eight earned C’s and six were given D’s.

NIU failed the report in part for not including the term “gender identity” in its university policies or student rights and responsibilities documents. “I definitely think this is an evolving area: How well institutions are prepared to deal with gender identity issues,” Cook said. “On campus, that’s an ongoing effort right now.”

The report didn’t acknowledge that NIU has an LGBT studies program, said Cook and Diana Swanson, associate professor of English in the women’s studies program and coordinator of the LGBT studies program. “In terms of the academic programs, they just looked at teacher preparation,” Swanson said. She agrees with Cook that the report addresses an important issue, but that it is “limited and flawed.”

Swanson noted that, by her count, NIU is the only university in Illinois with a LGBT studies program. Three in Illinois have a LGBT focus in their gender studies program, and 26 universities across the nation have at least an LGBT focus. Cook pointed out that only 125 out of 3,000 universities nationwide have an LGBT resource center.

Kevin Prost, sophomore environmental geosciences major, said he has noticed the “visibility” of LGBT issues being addressed at NIU. “Yeah, I’ve definitely seen it around,” he said. “The support’s there.”