NEWS


Survey results precipitate changes in shuttle system


Rebecca Daly  enlarge image

The results of an 11-day long survey conducted Nov. 5-15 by Auxiliary Services about the school's shuttle system are in, and the new information is leading to changes in the way the system will operate.

The survey explored many areas of the rider's experience, including wait times, bus conditions, driver attitudes, frequency of use, and stops.

Of the 243 people surveyed, 60.9 percent of them were students, 30 percent were staff, and 9.1 percent were faculty.

Of these, 28.9 percent said they ride the shuttle every day, with Tuesdays and Thursdays being the most used days of the week.

Between 12 and 5 p.m. was the time frame with the most riders.

UNF Hall, Lot 18, and the library were the more popular spots for people to board the shuttle, and 61.3 percent of riders surveyed exit at the library stop.

Vince Smyth, director of business and finance for Auxiliary Services, said the results of the survey, along with recommendations from private consulting firm Skipper Consulting, will lead to the construction of shelters at certain stops - specifically in lots 14 and 18 - as well as taking stops out of parking lots and constructing proper cutaways on roads to allow faster loading and unloading of passengers.

Smyth said these are long-term goals that will take planning and financial backing, but improvements can be expected within the next fiscal year.

Many people requested separate buses for the North and South routes, express buses exclusive to lots 14 and 18, more buses in the evening hours, and a stop at the University Center.

Skipper Consulting found that numbers for riders past 10 p.m. are very low, warranting the running of one shuttle during that time rather than two.

The survey found that the 5 p.m.-12 a.m. time bracket ranks lowest in number of riders next to the 12 a.m.-6 a.m. bracket.

"This is something that the students want, but the numbers don't justify it," Smyth said. Faculty and staff requesting a stop at the University Center is also another issue that will not be addressed, he said.

"This shuttle is for student use," Smyth said. "Students don't go to the University Center, and they are the ones paying for this service."

Drivers not stopping at stops was also a frequent complaint of shuttle riders, but Smyth said that when the bus is full and no one is getting off, the driver cannot stop for more passengersa.

With two already in service, the new shuttles have perimeter seating that allows for more room and riders, better access for riders with disabilities, and the ability to display advertisements, Smyth said.

The new buses will also feature the new name of the shuttle, "Osprey Connector," with the tagline "We will swoop you up."

After finals week, the shuttles will run until Dec. 14 and will not run again until Jan. 6.

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State cuts Bright Futures awards

As the spring semester draws near, college students across the state may be counting change to make up for the $75 cut from the educational stipend of the Academic Scholars Award in the Bright Futures scholarship program.

The Florida Legislature passed three bills in October that affected Bright Futures, one of which decreases the amount students receive for books and other educational costs from $300 to $225.

For UNF, where 5,802 students rely on Bright Futures for financial aid, 729 Florida Academic Scholar students will be directly affected by the change.

"I think it's going to inconvenience a lot of students, because a lot of people who have the full ride were planning on that money," said Katie Penkala, a senior math major. "If [students] don't have enough money, they could work to make up the rest. But if [Bright Futures] is cut too much, they'll have to take out loans with their scholarships - or just not buy books."

According to Florida Senate Bill 2C, the financial aid budget was reduced by less than 2 percent this year, but the cutbacks were made due to state revenue shortfalls.

The only two programs affected by the funding decreases are Florida Bright Futures and the First Generation Matching Grant Program.

During the 2007 Florida legislative session, the Senate also passed a bill that allows Bright Futures to increase scholarship allotments to coincide with increased tuition costs.

Tuition costs are meant to increase across the state in the 2008-2009 fiscal year in order to keep up with inflation.

The Senate also approved a change removing technology fees, which were authorized to be implemented in the 2009-2010 academic year, from Bright Futures coverage.

All the changes will come into effect Jan. 1, 2008, affecting UNF students minimally, said Anissa Cameron, associate director of enrollment services processing. The most significant change is the money students receive for their textbooks expenditure.

All students are subject to the change, no matter the time they became involved in the Bright Futures Scholarship program.

"I think it should have stayed the same for the students who were already promised the $300 a semester," said Penkala, a Bright Futures scholarship recipient. "It should have just changed for the incoming freshmen."

Cameron said all the changes are statewide, and not particular to UNF.

"Statewide programs have increased," Cameron said. She said funding has not been cut for need-based financial aid, and it's the first time she's seen a reduction in merit-based financial aid like Bright Futures.

Deborah Higgins, a representative for the Florida Department of Education, said the department does not have a stance on the Bright Futures cutbacks.

Within the bills passed by the Senate is a provision that allows the Florida Legislature to determine the amount of college-related expenses funded each year. This specification has many students questioning the future of their financial aid.

"I think a lot of kids wouldn't be going to college if they didn't have Bright Futures," Penkala said.

Kristen Robinson, a freshman biology major, said she thinks these budget cuts are just the beginning.

"Seeing as they are cutting into [Bright Futures] already, there will probably be more cuts," Robinson said.

Some students, like Zach Latham, a freshman business major, think Bright Futures was the wrong place for the Florida Legislature to reduce funding.

"[Bright Futures] is something to work toward," Latham said. "It's something that students put the work into, and it's so beneficial to them."

Scholarship changes
- $75 decrease for books - An increase in scholarship allotments to coincide with increased tuition costs
- Removal of technology fees, which were authorized to be implemented in the 2009-2010 academic year

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Committee votes for student fee increases

The Student Fee Assessment Committee met Nov. 30 and voted on proposed fee increases for next year. The committee's recommendations are below. The recommendations will be forwarded to UNF President John Delaney for approval and then put before the Board of Trustees for final approval in January.

ATHLETICS
APPROVED: $0.32
FROM $0.81 REQUEST

- CURRENT FEE: $12.68 per credit hour.
- REQUESTED INCREASE: 81 cents.
- COMMITTEE DECISION: Not approved; recommended 32 cent increase.
- NEW TOTAL: $13 per credit hour.


SG - ACTIVITY AND SERVICE FEE
APPROVED: $0.16
FROM $0.22 REQUEST

- CURRENT FEE: $7.83 per credit hour.
- REQUESTED INCREASE: 22 cents.
- COMMITTEE DECISION: Not approved; recommended 16 cent increase.
- NEW TOTAL: $7.99 per credit hour.


STUDENT MEDICAL SERVICES

APPROVED: $0.14
FROM $0.76 REQUEST

- CURRENT FEE: $2.90 per credit hour.
- REQUESTED INCREASE: 76 cents.
- COMMITTEE DECISION: Not approved; recommended 14 cent increase.
- NEW TOTAL: $3.04 per credit hour.


COUNSELING CENTER

APPROVED: $0.10
IN FULL

- CURRENT FEE: $1.80 per credit hour.
- REQUESTED INCREASE: 10 cents.
- COMMITTEE DECISION: Approved.
- NEW TOTAL: $1.90 per credit hour.

Compiled by Tami Livingston
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Cubans demand the return of independent, religious universities

More than 5,000 students, professors, intellectuals, Catholics and parents have signed a petition seeking a return of independent and religious universities, all of which the communist government closed more than 40 years ago, organizers said Nov. 28.

The University Students Without Borders petition drive demands that autonomous institutions of higher education be created out of shuttered schools or converted from existing government schools, supporters and organizers said.

Human-rights activists and government opponents involved in the campaign charged that the country's universities stifle free speech and academic freedom and eject students and faculty who criticize Fidel Castro and the socialist state.

Since August 2006, 5,000 signatures have been collected, but the group will spend the next year doubling that number before presenting their petition to the National Assembly for consideration, according to organizer Rolando Rodriguez and his supporters.

Most of the signatures are from university students, supporters said.

Organizers conceded that no independent funding exists to establish the schools but they have approached Cuba's Roman Catholic Church about reopening Santo Tomas de Villanueva University as an independent school. The church didn't respond to the group's letter, organizers said.

Supporters said they would also favor colleges set up by other faiths as long as they weren't controlled by the government, saying they favored a curriculum emphasizing character and moral values.

A Catholic church official told The Associated Press that he hadn't heard of the proposal. Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega has spoken of the idea of Catholic schools in Cuba, or at least teaching religion in schools, but he has been unsuccessful.

After Castro took control of Cuba in a 1959 revolution, he closed Catholic schools and repressed religion until 1992, when the country ended its atheist status, even permitting Communist Party members to practice Catholicism and other faiths.

Castro has noted that his nation's education system has eradicated high levels of illiteracy that had existed before his takeover.

Organizers acknowledged that the petition is likely to be rejected by the communist government. But at a minimum, the campaign raises public awareness "so that everyone can know what's going on in the universities" in Cuba, said Minaldo Ramos Salgado, 44, a signature collector.

Ricardo Rodriguez Borrero, 40, a pro-democracy activist who would like his four daughters, ages 11, 8, 5 and 2, to attend an autonomous university someday, said political indoctrination permeates college campuses.

"The universities here aren't an altruistic activity," he said. "Sometimes they cancel classes just to have a political march."

Castro has highlighted his country's accomplishments in training physicians, including the graduation of eight Americans from Cuba's medical school earlier this year.

But one petition drive supporter, Lester Perez Sanchez, a physician specialist in allergies who attended medical school in the 1980s, said political indoctrination has even affected medical training.

"From my time until now, the quality of medical school has been bad," Perez said. "If a person opposes the government in school, they are kicked out. It's been happening for a while."

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Printmaking alive and well


Jen Quinn  enlarge image

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Police Beat Hall of Fame


A look back at some of the most outrageous police beat moments of the semester:

August 1 - Abandoned baby (Building 900) - An officer in the Student Conduct office was approached by a woman who said there was a baby in a carrier by itself in the housing laundry room. The woman said she had waited for 15 minutes for someone to come back for the baby, but no one had.

The officer removed an ID card from a purse in the carrier, and as he was calling the information into dispatch, another woman showed up and took the card from him, picked up the baby, and tried to leave the laundry room. When the officer told the woman she could not leave until she had shown him her ID and given her information, she ignored the officer and said she didn't have any ID while still trying to leave the area.

After being restrained by the officer and told she would be arrested for disobeying a lawful order, the woman stopped. When the officer asked why she had left her baby alone in the laundry room, she said she needed to go to the Housing Office to get a refund for a broken laundry machine.

When questioned by the officer, the woman denied being a resident or a student of the university. The woman was issued a trespass warning from campus, which she signed as "Devil."

When she was encouraged to collect her laundry and leave campus, the woman called UNF racist and made references to slavery and South African Apartheid.

August 3 - Public disturbance and intoxication (Building Y) - Officers were dispatched to the Landing in response to reports of a fight. Upon arriving, the officers found a male resident intoxicated and screaming in the courtyard of Building Y.

After speaking with the suspect and nearby residents, the officers found that the male suspect had entered a nearby room and began randomly hitting its occupants. After speaking with the intoxicated resident, officers returned him to his room.

Sept. 18 - Dispute over umbrella (UPD Station) - A woman had a confrontation with a UNF Housing Maintenance employee over an umbrella. The employee allegedly grabbed the woman's arm and attempted to take the umbrella from her, claiming it was his. The woman tried to prove the umbrella was hers, but the employee continued to follow her and make statements about reporting the dispute to UPD. The woman was advised to call UPD if there were any more encounters.

Sept. 9 - Armed robbery (Lot 16) - Three men robbed two UNF students at knifepoint as they left the Crossings. The men claimed to be criminal justice majors who were working for UPD. The suspects were later apprehended.

Sept. 18 - Resisting arrest (Lot 17) - A UPD officer spotted two students in a parking lot. When they saw the officer, they ran into the woods. One student stopped and identified himself to the officer, while the other kept running. The student said they were trying to locate a 12-pack of Natural Light they had hidden in the woods. The student who ran was later arrested for resisting an officer without violence.

Oct. 2 - Accidental Injury (Building B) - A female student stepped on a broken peppershaker and cut her foot.

Oct. 12-14 - Gandhi's glasses stolen (Courtyard).

Oct. 17 - Attempted abduction (Lot 2) - A witness observed four males dressed in black exiting a car and forcing another male into the trunk of their vehicle. The suspects were stopped and removed from the vehicle at gunpoint. After being interviewed, the suspects revealed the incident was a prank. The seriousness of the prank was explained to the suspects and they were released at the scene. All students were referred to Student Conduct.

Nov. 1 - Criminal mischief (Building Q) - An RA contacted UPD regarding a prank that resulted in the flooding of her dorm room. A loud pop at her door prompted the RA to open it, causing a 20 gallon trash bin filled with water and cooking oil to spill into her room. Another resident noticed a man running from the scene.

Nov. 20 - Accidental injury (Building Z) - The University Police Department responded to a call about a student falling from a second-story window. The victim was lying on the ground beneath a shattered window.

The student attempted to moon another student outside from her window. When she placed her buttocks on the window, it shattered, causing the student to fall to the ground. The victim was transported to Shands Hospital.

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Gas costs: bah, humbug this holiday


Brittany Lara  enlarge image

The rising cost of gas may put a pinch on the wallets of UNF students returning home for the holidays.

With the price of oil skyrocketing over the past several weeks, gas stations across the country are raising prices. Crude oil prices reached a record high of almost $98 per barrel Nov. 7. Though it has come down since then, the price of a barrel of crude oil remains high at $88.32 Dec. 4. The increase in oil prices is reflected in the rising costs UNF students will face at the pump - an average of $3.11 per gallon in Florida, according to research released by AAA.

The increase in oil prices is due to a lack of oil production worldwide, said UNF economics professor and former member of the petroleum industry Dr. John Mundy. A recent shift in policy at OPEC - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - has decreased the supply emerging from the organization's 11-member countries.

"No one can point to restraint in the minds and actions of the American people," Mundy said. "There has been a constant United States demand, despite rising costs."

Besides increased consumption by everyday drivers, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are also a huge drain on fuel supplies, Mundy said. The problem is worsened by the fact that no new refineries are being built in the United States, despite increasing demand. Hurricane Katrina further compounded the problem by damaging the oil refining stations and ports of the New Orleans area, a key entry point for oil going to the Midwest and South.

Mundy anticipates gas prices will continue to rise through the coming months, since no major change in supply or demand is likely to occur in the near future.

"People are still going to travel, especially in this sort of traditional family-oriented holiday season," said Randy Bly, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club South.

Despite the rising price of gas, 38 million people will travel more than 50 miles from their home this holiday season - a 1.5 percent increase from last year, Bly said. This sort of rise in gas prices is uncommon at this time of year, when prices are usually at their lowest. There is generally a slight price increase for the holiday travel season, but not to this extent, Bly said.

"It will cost me close to $80 to $100 to go home to Fort Lauderdale," said junior finance major Bryan Ross. "That's one week's worth of work being almost instantaneously used."

Ross said that while he's going to go home to see his family and can afford the increase in gas prices, it will greatly reduce the amount of money he had to spend on going out when he returns to UNF in the new year.

"This year I am carpooling with my friend, who is going home to Tallahassee when I go home to Pensacola," sophomore history major Michael Potoczek said. "It's inconvenient, but it makes sense, cost-wise."

Previous increases in the price of gasoline did not change Potoczek's driving habits, but further increases have prompted him to change his mind about how he uses gas, he said.

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Students propose coed rooms at Stanford University

Students of the opposite sex have shared dorm rooms on the sly for decades, but Stanford University housing officials are now discussing a way to bless the arrangements.

The idea is less Sodom and Gomorrah than Will & Grace, say those behind the movement. They say they aren't seeking hormone-fueled hookups but places where straight, gay and transgender students can feel at home with whatever gender they choose.

"It is not about sex," said Katherine Roubos, a 22-year-old international relations major who organized the "Genderblind Task Force" of Stanford students who recently met with housing officials. "Our motivation is that to be a healthy student, you need to feel comfortable in your living space."

The movement builds on Stanford's decision in September to expand its nondiscrimination policies to protect students who may be biologically one gender, but identify with the other.

Although students have pressed for coed rooms for years, they say the new language grants them the right to live with whatever gender they most identify with - platonically or otherwise.

Throughout much of Stanford's history, students mingled mostly at mixers. But in recent years, the sexes have grown more chummy. First came coed dormitories in 1966. Next came coed floors, even unisex bathrooms. Bedrooms - what else is left to integrate? - are the final frontier.

If it adopts "gender-blind" housing as a student option, Stanford would join a small but growing number of colleges that are modifying policies to accommodate male and female students who want to live together. It is already available at about 30 schools, including Dartmouth, Cal Tech, New York University, Ithaca and Swarthmore.

But other colleges - including Duke, Tufts, William and Mary, and the University of North Carolina - have considered the idea, then dumped it.

At the University of California-Berkeley, only residents of the Unity House, a themed program focused on students' gender and sexuality, can have roommates of the opposite sex.

Stanford men and women can only be roommates in cooperative houses, where the university ignores living arrangements, or in couples' housing in Escondido Village.

Housing officials have sought to accommodate transgender students on an individual basis, rather than implementing gender-neutral housing for the entire Stanford population.

Sophomore Eric Tran, 19, says that he'd take advantage of such housing.

He says many of his best friends are women and that he feels uncomfortable in the machismo setting of all-male dorm rooms and locker rooms.

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Rental Web site services take sting out of costly college textbooks

Faced with escalating textbook prices, college students are applying a lesson from Economics 101 to the book-buying experience: competition.

This is the time of year when students finish final exams and schlep their used books over to the campus bookstore, only to discover that the shiny, near-new Calculus text that cost $120 only four months ago is now worth $24.95. But increasing numbers of students are opting to rent, not buy, through a new Santa Clara, Calif.-based, Netflix-style textbook rental company.

Others are organizing online book swaps. And online price comparison sites are growing in popularity. Some students are opting out of textbooks altogether. The Foothill-De Anza Community College District encourages faculty to post course materials online, as a substitute for commercial textbooks.

"The more options that are out there, the better for students," said Danny Katz of California Public Interest Research Group.

Book publishers say they welcome the competition - but caution that it could have the unforeseen consequence of pushing up textbook pricing still further.

As rented and other used books grow in popularity, fewer new books are sold. To recoup their investment, publishers say, they must boost the price of each new book.

"The single biggest factor behind the increased price of new books is used books," said Bruce Hildebrand of the Association of American Publishers.

"Everybody's looking for a bargain," Hildebrand said. "But the used book market is so efficient that the ability to sell new books goes down. So the student saves money up front, but in the process, raises the price of all books."

Critics dismiss that argument, saying that free enterprise could transform the entire industry. Until recently, they charge, the textbook market was about as open and free-wheeling as the bread business in Cuba.

Books set back the average American college student about $900 a year, according to the federal Government Accountability Office. Prices have risen an average of 6 percent annually for the past two decades - twice the rate of inflation.

The reason is that the buyers - that is, students - don't choose the titles. Professors do. So publishers don't compete for price but for the attention of professors.

Furthermore, most professors assemble their reading lists without regard to price. Publishers aren't required to release wholesale price lists to faculty members - and some even offer faculty incentives for selecting certain texts.

"Colleges serve as the uncompensated marketing arm of the commercial textbook publishers," Hal Plotkin, vice president of Foothill-De Anza's board of trustees, complained to a state Assembly subcommittee last year.

Comparison shopping is tough, because book lists are rarely posted by faculty until school starts. And to make matters worse, used books are devalued because publishers often update books each year _ offering a new edition of Worldly Philosophers, for example, even though the critiques of Immanuel Kant haven't changed since the 1780s.

Publishers also "bundle" pricey CDs, workbooks and other bells and whistles with textbooks - a practice akin to Honda adding GPS and aluminum racing pedals to every Civic.

"It doesn't function like a normal market," said CalPIRG's Katz.

Publishers refute that charge, arguing that pricing information is readily available. "PIRG is saying that faculty are too dumb and lazy to find out what a book costs," said Hildebrand. "In fact, the process is totally transparent."

They say that the supplemental materials aren't extra frills but are requested by faculty to help students succeed.

To help solve the problem of high book prices, new textbook rental Web sites such as Chegg.com and Bookrenter.com offer students cheaper alternatives. After the quarter, semester or summer term, students simply mail back a book to the company in a pre-paid package. Students can use highlighters to mark up rental books - in moderation. And if they love a book, they can keep it, for a price.

Chegg, founded by Santa Clara-based Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra, has more than 250,000 titles stored in a Chicago-area warehouse, ready to be quickly shipped. What it doesn't have, it can quickly get, Rashid said.

Students from 420 universities, including Stanford, Santa Clara University and San Jose State University, use their services, the company says.

"It's pretty helpful if I know I'll just get rid of the book," said Celeste Tom, 22, of Oakland, who is studying biology at Mills College.

Karen Silva of Redwood City priced out books for her daughter Rayan, a freshman at Canada College. "Psychology was $110; math was $110. Holy Mackerel!"

Renting, she said, "has saved me a bundle, and I don't have to stress out and try to sell them."

textbooks for Rent - Web sites that rent textbooks include Chegg.com and Bookrenter.com
- More than 250,000 titles available at Chegg.com
- More than 420 universities involved

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His, hers, or ours? These bathrooms serve all


MCT

When Robin Peckham first began attending Brown University, the bathrooms in his dormitory made him uncomfortable. But it wasn't the messy sinks or soap scum that made Peckham ill at ease; it was the signs on the door.

Peckham, a 19-year-old sophomore, does not identify as male or female. So when he, who also goes by "she" and "it," had to decide whether to use a female-only or male-only bathroom, the choice was not easy.

"When I used men's bathrooms, I felt awkward wearing skirts or sitting down to pee or shaving my legs. When I used women's bathrooms, I felt awkward shaving my face or wearing boxers," Peckham said in an e-mail.

"I also hated switching back and forth for different activities because I didn't want people to think I was some weirdo," he said.

Some students, including Peckham, have experienced verbal and physical harassment while using gender-specific bathrooms because of their gender identity and expression, which do not involve sexual orientation.

For students who feel uncomfortable or unsafe using traditional restrooms, universities across the country are implementing gender-neutral bathrooms, bathrooms that are not designated as male or female, in academic buildings and dormitories.

On many campuses, these actions are met with praise. But some groups, mostly conservative, are condemning the trend.

Most universities that changed bathrooms from gender-specific to gender-neutral did so by simply switching restroom signs, making the cost of converting the bathrooms minimal.

This summer Brown University converted 12 restrooms, including single-use and multiuse bathrooms, to gender-neutral by switching signs.

These changes are partly the result of advocacy from students in the university's Queer Alliance, a group that helps promote transgender and gay rights on campus. Along with various subgroups, the alliance has been insisting on having gender-neutral bathrooms for years.

Despite changes, members hope to help implement more of the bathrooms at Brown.

"I think we're seeing more transgender students and more students who don't identify in traditional gender-binary ways," says Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life at Brown.

Brown is not alone. Fifty-four percent of the country's top 25 universities have gender-neutral bathrooms, says a study by the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) released this August.

The goal of GenderPAC is to ensure that schools, workplaces and communities are suitable places for those who do not meet expectations for masculinity and femininity to succeed.

According to the study, both private institutions, like Princeton and Harvard, and public schools, like the University of Virginia and University California, Berkeley provide gender-neutral restroom facilities. More than 140 campuses have made the change.

In 2005, officials at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania decided all buildings on campus should have at least one gender-neutral bathroom, preferably single-occupancy. By converting signs on handicapped bathrooms, they achieved their goal.

"Here at Swarthmore we're very much concerned about social justice and social equality. Every member of our community is valuable and should be respected," said Sharmaine LaMar, the college's equal opportunity officer. "Any institution that has similar values would want to recognize all members of its community."

At Brown, members of RUQUS, a subgroup of the Queer Alliance, demonstrated against gender-specific bathrooms last year by designating entrances to an on-campus dining hall as male or female.

Dressed in drag, students directed those entering the dining hall through the "appropriate" entrance and verbally harassed those who went through the "wrong" door.

According to Peckham, who participated in the protest, the demonstration, along with editorials in the university's student newspaper, generated conversation on campus and drew the attention of university administrators.

Prior to implementing gender-neutral restrooms at Brown, officials surveyed students this past spring and determined most were comfortable with the change.

A more recent survey this semester showed 46 percent of Brown's student body was in favor of gender-neutral bathrooms, Klawuun said.

The growing trend has received applause from those advocating for transgender rights and criticism from some evangelical groups.

The position of the council is that men and women are created equal in the eyes of God, but have different, complimentary roles. For men, this means loving headship of a family. For women, it's joyful and intelligent submission.

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