Queer at college has dramatically changed since the days when I spent four years at my alma mater along the beautiful coastline of Maine.  It was the 1960s at an all-boys private undergraduate school where the policy was almost beyond "don't ask, don't tell." It wasn't until I arrived in graduate school in New York City two years later that even some of my former college buddies, including a former roommate came out to me.

Nowadays not only are there student centers specifically for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning students at such prestigious institutions of higher learning as University of Pennsylvania  (U of P)and impressive queer studies programs at Duke University but schools that are actively and aggressively reaching out to high school students who have already come out of the closet.

In their annual spring educational supplement, The New York Times (April 18, 2010) devoted a feature article on a college fair that took place at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in New York City sponsored by Campus Pride (CP), a national organization that identifies and promotes "safe environments for gay students" explained Shane L. Windmeyer, one of the CP's co-founders.

While most of the Ivy Leagues schools have taken the lead in creating safe havens for educating queer students, such college fairs are beginning to attract many lesser known colleges that want to expand their admissions policies and offerings.

"The more I can help my institutions be open to diversity at all different levels," said Scott A. McIntyre, associate director of admissions at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, "it's just going to make us a stronger university and it's going to make our student body be more robust."

Windmeyer said that queer "students are looking for colleges where they will feel comfortable and safe" and "straight students who have gay family members want to find a campus that is welcoming."

"Students are finding out that not only are they not being discriminated against for revealing their sexual orientation in their applications, it may be an extra," commented Rachel Pepper, author of "The Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life,"

When "Inside Higher Ed," an online publication reported the new outreach policies for queer applicants at U of P where the admissions department puts them directly in touch with queer students and organizations on campus there was something of a controversy. However, U of P's dean of admissions, Eric J. Furda, defended the policy stating that the school "was doing for gay applicants what it has long done for other groups. "We are speaking to students on the areas they are most interested in," he said.

While some schools like Dartmouth expressed concern over issues of students' privacy with the U of P approach, the University of Southern California goes even another step further by offering queer students a "Rainbow Floor Overnight Experience," on a queer floor of one of their residence halls and a day visiting their host's classes and student organizations."

This year "The Princeton Review," which surveys 122,000 students on a variety of topics for its "Best 371 Colleges: 2010 Edition," has now added a ranking of colleges where the queer community is "most accepted."  Ranked in the number one place was New York University.

While Campus Pride is planning on conducting its own survey on ranking colleges according to how queer friendly they are, McIntyre offered a note of practicality when choosing a college to attend.

"What's the best college I can get into" is no longer the question, he suggested, but "What's the best fit for me?"

There are several art exhibitions devoted to queer arts, one major and unique curated show, "Queer Voice," at the prestigious Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) that's now open and runs through August 1, and two more that will open, one at A x D Gallery  in Center City, and another at Ven and Vaida in Old City.

The three exhibitions are loosely connected on a number of levels, all of them featuring out artists, each of them, embracing, in their own way, the meaning or essence of "queer" sensibility, not a particular easy concept to nail down, even among the most intellectual queer theorists, and all them accepting, politically correctly or not, the identification or word or name, still unacceptable, even abhor ant to others, of "Queer." (I find that it's more and more an LGBT generational divide over this issue of community name reference.)

The museum-scale exhibition at ICA focuses upon the "the voice as a material in contemporary art" and, in this simply named show, the "queered" voices of Laurie Anderson, Harry Dodge and Stanya  Kahn, Sharon Hayes, John Kelly, Kalup Linzy, Jack Smith, Ryan Trecartin and Andy Warhol. The presentation is instigated by the new technology of the 1960s when audio tape recording became popularized and widespread. That growth and development in new technologies now manifest itself with the voice on the internet and digital culture.

"Queer Voice" claims to bring about a cross-generational conversation around queer identity and non-oppositional representations of gender.

What's all this about, you might be asking? One way to find out is to visit the exhibition on Wednesday at ICA, 6:30 pm, when they'll be hosting a screening, salon, cabaret and disco, it promises to be an interesting and festive evening of queer voices of all kinds, I suspect.

Queer maestro of self promotion in his own right, talk show host, photographer, painter, film maker and model, Butch Cordova (does this man ever stop creating?), will open "Straight and Butch," an exhibition of his own large-scale photographic prints an d canvases at Ven and Vaida, 18 South 3rd Street, in Old City, Philadelphia, with an opening reception, July 2, 6-9 pm, and running through August 1. Then "Straight and Butch," the film, will have its World Premiere at Philadelphia QFest, July 14, 7:30 pm, at Ritz at the Bourse in Old City. "Don't let the title fool you," joked director Cordova of his documentary. Neither events should be missed!

"Queer Art?" , at A x D Gallery, 265 South 10th Street at Locust Street, adjacent to the Gayborhood, has featured queer artists at other times, but this curated group exhibition raises the question  about the meaning of "queer sensibility," The show's curator Ryan McMenamin  has selected a variety of media that responses to the complex and controversial theme. Artists include:  Michael Broderick, Michael Biello, Susan Dipronio, J.D. Dragan, Laureen Griffin, Randy Husavo, Paul Davis Jones, Doroh Langberg, David Luni, Ashley Payne and Larry Wood.

The exhibition runs July 7-August 7, with a special event on July 7 in celebration with Philadelphia QFest 2010 on the eve of the opening of the 16^th queer film festival (July 8-19), who will be hosting a benefit that includes an open vodka, wine and water bar, complimentary appetizers and door prizes. Tickets are just $20 at the door only. Sponsors include: Smirnoff, Barefoot Wine, SmartWater, VitaminZero, Qdoba and QUEERtimes.net and fueled by BUCKmonkey.

I must tell you that all three exhibitions, installations and films are really not-to-be-missed. So, I'll see you all there!