<p>I graduated from UR in 2009 and I do remember those incidents mentioned in the posts on this forum. Personally, I think UR handled these terrible incidents well and used them as an opportunity to talk about racism and sexuality. Overall, UR is what you make it, I found a close knit group of friends, mostly international students. I felt the overall atmosphere is very respectful of minorities of all sorts. I do remember hearing about a LGBT group on campus and focused on shedding light on LGBT issues and promoting acceptance. In terms of safety, I transferred to from Smith College (a small all girls college in Massachusetts) and in part chose UR because I felt that its location and resources would provide a safe campus experience. During my three years there I did not have any issues and had to pull several all nighters in Boatwright (library) and then return to my dorm. In retrospect, I would recommend that anyone in general take safety percussion such as carrying pepper spray, begin alert, using buddy system, regardless of where they attend. </p>
<p>Also, I did not join a sorority because I never felt like a “sorority type” of girl, however, many sororities at UR seemed to promote academic excellence and were more of a service club. I recall that several people who graduated with high honors belonged to this one particular sorority (maybe a coincidence, maybe not). </p>
<p>As you can probably tell I enjoyed my time at UR and actually picked it over Vandy when I transferred my sophomore year. Another plus was no TAs!!! I had several friends that went to better known schools and had TAs their first two years!</p>