By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Columbia University is considering a "gender neutral" housing policy that would allow male and female students to live together in the university's dorms.
Supporters of the plan, which was passed along to the administration by the Columbia College Student Council, will particularly help gay and transgendered students who don't always feel comfortable rooming with someone of the same gender.
The proposal is “about giving students the opportunity to live with whomever they feel comfortable…without gender binaries of being male and female,” CCSC Vice President Sarah Weiss told the Columbia Spectator.
It would apply to sophomores, junior and seniors who opt for a same-sex roommate.
"You'll probably see senior couples who have been dating a while maybe moving in together," Weiss told the New York Post. "They can't mandate against that happening."
Other Ivy League universities, including Brown and Dartmouth, have adopted gender-neutral housing policies.
Some parents aren't on board with the plan.
"As far as coed roommates go, that would be insane," Laura Hannon, mother of a Columbia student, told the Post. "If our child chose to do that, we would opt out."
