Beginning this year, applicants to Northwestern University's graduate school will be asked about their sexual orientation, according to a Chicago Tribune item.
The aim of the question, the school stated, is to gain a better understanding of the school's community to better serve all in the school.
Dean Dwight McBride said, "If we don't ask the question, we are not building a data archive and, therefore, have no way of knowing what the needs of our populations and subpopulations in our communities arebeyond guessing and anecdote."
Among other schools that ask this particular question of students are the University of Iowa, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Illinois' Elmhurst College.