'Gender-Neutral' Dorms Start at Rutgers!

Rutgers is going to let students of the opposite sex dorm together for the first time, a "gender-neutral" policy designed to make the campus more accommodating to gay students, reports the Star-Ledger. The move comes in the wake of last year's high-profile suicide of Tyler Clementi. Students won't be asked to reveal their sexual preference, and they'll be able to name a roommate of either sex. Parents can't veto the pick.

The policy won't be open to freshmen, but first-year students can request a roommate who supports their sexual preference. It will start in three dorms as a pilot program. "I’m really glad they did it, although I wish it wouldn’t have taken as long," one transgender student tells the newspaper. "We live in a world where in order to be considered a human being you have to be male or female, and not everyone fits into that kind of binary. It’s important to have spaces where people don’t necessarily have to worry."