This month, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) released a comprehensive study indicating that one-third of GLBT students (in their survey of 14 campuses) had experienced harassment in the past year, while 20 percent said they feared for their safety.

The NGLTF surveyed more than 1,600 students, faculty members and administrators identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. While 30 campuses were asked to participate in the study, only 14 completed the project. Most of the campuses responding, like Oberlin College, have facilities and staff devoted to GLBT students and issues. This makes the results even more alarming.

• More than one-third of the respondents have experienced harassment within the past year.

• Those who experienced harassment reported that derogatory remarks were the most common form (89 percent) and that students were most often the source of harassment (79 percent).

• To avoid harassment, 51 percent concealed their sexual orientation or gender identity.

These results are not surprising. In preparing a syndicated column for U-Wire, which provides this column to over 500 college newspapers across the nation, I read campus newspapers on a daily basis. The good news, I’ve discovered, is that the college press is very supportive of GLBT issues, and that there is a growing trend on college campuses to establish GLBT academic programs, to hire GLBT coordinators, and to recruit GLBT students from high schools.

Locally, San Diego State University’s Associated Students Council unanimously approved a resolution calling for the establishment of a GLBT Studies program, while President Stephen Weber appointed openly lesbian Professor Bonnie Zimmerman to the post of Associate Vice-President for Faculty Affairs. UCSD’s student association approved a resolution calling for gender-neutral restrooms, and the campus has a GLBT support center and a full-time coordinator.

However, on the national level, there are still alarming incidents that show that GLBT acceptance has a long way to go.

• The Board of Trustees of Virginia Tech denied a teaching post to the domestic partner of a lesbian dean.

• A student at a college in Atlanta, Georgia, used a baseball bat to beat a fellow student in the shower because he thought the other student was gay and was looking at him.

• A student running for student body office in Oregon found her room vandalized, with the words “dyke” written across the walls.

• At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, an anti-hate crimes booth, sponsored by a gay student group, was itself the victim of a hate crimes, as two students pelted it with eggs.

• At Iowa State University, in response to a school administrator’s GLBT-supportive comments, the student services building was defaced with the words “Dean of Fags.”

When hate incidents arise on campus, state and federal law require the campus to find out who’s responsible for the assault or vandalism.

For example, last week campus police at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo arrested the two students charged with throwing eggs at the GLBT booth. Local prosecutors have charged them with a hate crime.

But the Cal Poly case is the exception. Usually, nothing happens when these incidents involve GLBT students.

The NGTLF suggests that schools can create a more supportive environment, and thus reduce homophobia. It suggests they: 1) recruit and retain GLBT staff; 2) show a commitment to GLBT issues; 3) integrate GLBT concerns into the curriculum; 4) provide campus lectures/events about GLBT matters; and a 5) create safe places for GLBT students and faculty.

The NGLTF suggests 50 things schools should do to meet these goals. But the simplest way to implement them is not necessarily with a law. It’s with a survey.

Nothing scares campus administrators more than a negative ranking in U.S. News & World Report. And short of that, any ranking by any group is cause for alarm. At a time when the great majority of incoming freshmen are freshwomen and the men and women tend to be very supportive of GLBT issues, no school would want to rank 2,900th out of 3,000 colleges and universities surveyed.

The NGLTF should conduct an annual survey for all postsecondary schools, and a similar survey should be adapted for the nation’s 15,000 school districts.