BREAKING: Spelman to be Gender-Neutral Next Year

[Updated 8 PM]Princeton will allow gender-neutral housing for undergraduate students in Spelman Hall next year, making the University the last Ivy League school to consider a gender-neutral option.Students drawing into Spelman will no longer be required to be in groups of four of the same gender.The proposal was written by the Undergraduate Life Committee earlier this month, and it was approved by the Council of Masters this week.Update:USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman '10 sent a campus-wide email earlier this evening detailing the new policy, which will be a one-year pilot program. Along with members of the ULC, Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson was a key figure in the University's policy change. Dickerson announced her retirement last week, and University has formed a search committee to name her replacement. The administration hopes to have a final list of candidates sometime in late February or early March.Excerpt from Diemand-Yauman's email after the jump:

This new option in the Spelman draw for the 2010-2011 academic year will feature the following:·         Suites in the Spelman Hall housing lottery would be designated as GNH. Unlike in other current housing options, these spaces would be co-educational, thus permitting male, female and transgender students to not only be in the same draw group, but live together in GNH suites.·         All students in this room type would have their own individual, private sleeping spaces and would share a common living area and bathroom; the suite would be, however, accessible by an exterior key.·         Eligible students would select this room type through the independent room draw process in accordance with standard room draw procedures. No preference would be given to gender neutral groups—the gender requirement would simply be removed from the Spelman rooms while the independent requirement would remain in place.By introducing the Gender Neutral housing in this manner—using Spelman Hall as a pilot program—we will allow the Housing Office, the Undergraduate Life Committee, the USG, and other interested bodies to study the outcome of the first year of a gender neutral housing policy.By comparing Spelman's gender neutral housing policy with the same-gender roommate system in other buildings, and broadly soliciting student input about the strengths and weaknesses of the system, it will be possible to evaluate the success of the program, as well as whether it should be continued and/or expanded in future.A very special thank you to Arthur Levy '10 (ULC chair), Emily Rutherford '12, Gary Wang '12, the ULC, and all the students and administrators who contributed to this initiative.