Saturday was a blast here at Creating Change -- another day of phenomenal workshops, coalition building and friend-making.

Campus Pride presented our 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People yesterday, too. About 40 folks gathered to hear the presentation from Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer and Chicora Martin, Assistant Dean of Students and Director, LGBTESSP, at the University of Oregon. Both Shane and Chicora did great in the absence of lead researcher Sue Rankin. Though Sue wasn't able to make it to the conference this weekend, her wonderful PowerPoint really made the presentation work.

There was good info and stats for any person working in higher ed, a very interested and engaged audience (including even undergrad students), and folks who definitely wanted to learn more and broaden the scope of the already-existing data Campus Pride has gathered. We love building new coalitions and relationships and welcome those who want to work with us to get our report into more hands on campuses and in communities. We really believe data is vital: Use it to back up your claims and support your initiatives on campus. Administrators love numbers, and the State of Higher Ed report's are hard to argue with.

Last but not least was the MasQueerAde Ball. Hundreds of young people and students gathered at the Hilton Minneapolis ballroom to hear performances by comedian Ben Lerman and spoken word artist Kit Yan. We couldn't have asked for a better end to our night!