UW-Milwaukee received two accreditations within a few days of each other: one for being a top 25 LGBT+ friendly campus and the other for being the state’s leading sustainable university.
The first award came on Aug. 28 from Campus Pride, a non-profit organization that works to create safer campuses for LGBT+ students. UW-Milwaukee won the same award in years past, including in 2016.
UWM and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay were the only two Wisconsin schools to make the list for 2017.
Campus Pride rates UWM with 4.5/5 stars. With over 300 colleges and universities on the index, UWM is in the top 25 of those.
“In order to be in the Top 25 listing, an institution had to score the highest percentages in the LGBTQ-friendly benchmarks for policies, programs and practices,” according to the press release from Campus Pride.
UWM is known to be an inclusive campus with the UWM Drag Show each year, the LGBT Resource Center on the ground floor of the Union and many LGBT+ policies on campus.
The other one of UWM’s accreditations came on Aug. 29 from the Sierra Club, ranking UWM as the state’s leading sustainable university and one of the “Top 50 Cool Schools 2017.”
UWM ranked 45 from universities and colleges from around the United States and Canada. In order to make the list, the Sierra Club recognizes universities with the best campus energy use, transportation and environmental priorities.
UWM’s sustainability program has only been in the works for the past 10 years but has outranked over 180 schools on the list.
Some of UWM’s environmentally-friendly aspects include the green roofs, the Bublr Bike installation and implementing the Campus Green Fund as part of the Student Association.
Upcoming in 2018, the campus Sustainability Office will have a new waste reduction program and different ways to unite the UW System in sustainability efforts, according to the UWM Report.
UWM’s accreditations are just part of many others including being an R-1 research university.