Just one week before North Carolina passed a bill restricting transgender access to bathrooms at public colleges in the state, a college president in New York City announced his institution would be moving in exactly the opposite direction. Bill Mea, acting president of the Cooper Union, informed his campus via email that soon all the college's bathrooms will be gender neutral. Anyone will be allowed to use any bathroom, and the signs designating bathrooms for either men or women will be replaced with signs that say either “Restroom With Urinals and Stalls,” “Restroom With Only Stalls” or “Restroom Single Occupancy.” As some states have considered legislation similar to North Carolina’s, many colleges and universities around the country have been slowly expanding support for transgender students by adding gender-neutral, single-stall bathrooms around campus or simply allowing people to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender identity. But Cooper Union appears to be the first college to completely eliminate gender distinctions in bathrooms.

March 31, 2016 ・ From Inside Higher Ed