BOISE, Idaho - A conservative group has criticized an Idaho university administrator for saying a planned new unisex restroom in her school's student center will accommodate transgender people.

Boise State University, with more than 12,000 students in the state capital, is adding 66,000 square feet in a $35 million student union building revamp beginning this month. It will add one unisex restroom that anyone can use; the restroom will afford users more privacy than traditional restrooms labeled "Men" and "Women."

Leah Barrett, the BSU student union's director, said she told a group of student lawmakers the new restroom would be suitable for people with disabilities, for families - and for transgender students. Transgender is an umbrella term that covers all people whose outward appearance and internal identity don't match their gender at birth.

"The role of a college union on a campus is to be the community center where everyone feels comfortable and feels welcome to be who they are," Barrett said. "That's our role, that's our philosophy."

Transgender people may fear harassment, violence and arrest when using traditional restrooms. Universities in Georgia, Arizona and Massachusetts have adopted restroom policies to address those concerns.

But this is conservative Idaho, which last year joined 25 other states in passing a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

The school officially calls the restroom "unisex," but Barrett's transgender reference prompted the BSU College Republicans to call for clarification.

"We don't want the university to label this a transgender bathroom," said Jonathan Sawmiller, 22, a BSU student senator and president of the school's College Republicans. He raised the issue in an April radio broadcast on a Boise AM station. "Since the media got hold of it, the university was told to stop referring to it as a 'transgender bathroom,' and to start calling it 'unisex,' " he said.

Sawmiller, who in early 2007 confronted BSU President Bob Kustra with a claim that the school invited mostly liberal speakers, has enlisted the assistance of the Idaho Values Alliance, a conservative Christian group.

"Our view is, gender is assigned at birth," said Bryan Fischer, the Idaho Values Alliance leader. "There's no third or fourth or fifth option."

Fischer wants to know if student groups - BSU's 200 campus organizations include Bisexuals, Gays, Lesbians and Allies for Diversity - will be allowed to alert transgender individuals to the restroom in their literature.

Michael Laliberte, BSU's vice president for student affairs, said the university won't infringe on student groups.

"They have the right, based on their freedom of speech and of the press, and can frankly call a bathroom anything that they want," he told the AP in an e-mail. "However, all official university publications will refer to it as a 'handicap accessible unisex bathroom.' "

Late last year, the University of Georgia in Athens designated two "gender neutral" restrooms, a change borne of concern for transgender students but which will benefit students with disabilities and medical conditions. The University of Arizona, Harvard and other schools have adopted or are considering "restroom-access policies."

It's an international issue: Italian politicians in 2006 debated which restroom that country's first transvestite lawmaker should use.

Michael Silverman, director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, said creating restrooms where transgender people - and everyone else - feel comfortable is an important role of a public university.

"It says, 'We value all different life experiences,' " Silverman said.