Intolerance, threats and verbal insults pervaded the campuses of three predominately White institutions, the University of California, Berkeley, Michigan State University, and Columbia College, according to a student survey in the recently released report, “If I’d Only Known.”

The report reveals that more than 60 percent of students at MSU reported witnessing or personally experiencing such incidents of violence based on intolerance, followed by 49 percent of students at UC Berkeley and 43 percent of students at Columbia.

Detecting low levels of social tolerance in the climate of some institutions for minorities, women and students with religious differences or alternative lifestyles is often difficult. To assist parents and students in evaluating the degree of inclusivity at a university the Campus Tolerance Foundation, a nonprofit organization designed to combat racial intolerance, surveyed more than 1,000 undergraduate students at the three universities to measure the current level of inclusivity at those institutions.

The study is not intended to be representative of all campuses, but represents a starting point in gauging campuses for an often overlooked factor that is important to many students.

Research shows that comfortable environments play a major role in minority persistence. Scholars agree that isolation and racial violence contribute to the high minority drop-out rates at some institutions.

“This research did document reports of bias toward members of minority groups,” says Marcella Rosen, founder of the Campus Tolerance Foundation. Since 2002, Rosen and her staff have been working to establish a tolerance rating for universities, as a service to parents and students.

“Are universities doing enough to understand how truly welcome minority groups feel on campus?” asks Rosen. “That’s for each university to answer. But what is clear to me is that universities are not surveying students in a systematic way and allowing families access to that information as they make their decisions about what school their children should attend.”