Gay Seton Hall Student Sues Alleging He Was Removed From Dorm Room Because Of Sexual Orientation

A Seton Hall University student from Ridgefield Park is suing the school, alleging that he was removed from his dorm room because he is gay, according to a report by North Jersey.com. 20 year old Jesse Cruz, a junior studying public relations, said he registered for a dorm room last August, paid close to $4,000 for a full semester of housing, and was assigned to a double room at Xavier Hall. His roommate, however, complained that he did not want to share a room with Cruz, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Newark. The school’s policy is that any student who is not happy with their living arrangement for any reason can ask to be moved on “Room Change Day,” and school officials will find them another room. In Cruz’s case, however, school officials moved Cruz to a room in another dormitory building instead of moving the other student, Cruz’s attorney, Rosemarie Arnold said Tuesday. Cruz said he then told school officials he was happy with his initial room and that he believed he had been moved because of his sexual orientation. He said he then received a letter from the school giving him the option to either move into a triple room or switch to a room “with a Chinese roommate,” options he did not chose. “I didn’t think it was fair that I was being moved because I was gay,” he said. Cruz said he slept on the floor in a friend’s dorm room for more than two weeks while his attorney wrote a letter to the school asking that Cruz be allowed to move back to his first room. Katherine Suga, a lawyer representing Seton Hall, replied to Arnold on September 29th, saying Cruz had not been moved from his room, and that “The University has never taken any action against Mr. Cruz based on his sexual preference.” Cruz said he since moved back to his dorm, albeit with another roommate, and has not had any problems since. Cruz contends he wants compensation for the time he was forced to sleep on the floor, and for emotional and psychological trauma he sustained. “On a moral level, we are seeking to make sure that this never happens again,” Arnold said. “We as parents send our children into the real world for the first time when we send them to college, and we expect the college to treat them responsibly.” Tuesday, Greg Tobin, a spokesman for Seton Hall, said the school has not yet seen the lawsuit and that “We do not yet have a copy of the complaint, so we are not in a position to comment at this time.”