Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Most colleges didn’t allow students of different genders to live in the same dormitory 40 years ago.
After gender-neutral buildings were opened, universities began to allow members of the opposite sex to live on the same floor. Now, there’s a new gender-based issue to debate in student housing.
“We’re at the next phase in the evolution,” Jeffrey Chang, co-founder of the National Student Genderblind Campaign, said. “Why can’t men and women take the next step and live together?”
Chang, a senior at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., started the national campaign for gender-neutral dorm rooms after he was not allowed to share a room with one of his close female friends his freshman year.
It caught on. National news organizations such as USA Today and CNN featured the National Student Genderblind Campaign in stories. Students experiencing rejection like Chang began reaching out to the organization. And Chang said the number of schools allowing gender-neutral rooms doubled, from 15 to 30.
“Whether or not schools are actually doing this is one thing,” Chang said. “But schools are actually talking about it. Students are talking about it. That’s the thing I’m most happy about.”
James Baumann, director of communications at the Association of College and University Housing Officials, said the trend was mostly limited to small liberal arts colleges before the campaign. Bigger universities started to take notice.
Public state universities such as the University of California and the University of Michigan started permitting members of the opposite sex to live together this year. But Baumann stopped short of calling the trend the future of student housing.
“There are going to be colleges that are never going to implement this policy,” Baumann said. “It’s not part of their campus culture.”
Don’t consider the University of Kansas one of those schools. Diana Robertson, director of the Department of Student Housing, said the University doesn’t currently offer gender-neutral rooms but that it would be discussed the next time the department planned major renovations.
She said the University’s buildings weren’t structurally set up well enough for it to happen yet. On floors that contain members of both sexes at the University, males go on one side and females on the other. Gender-specific bathrooms are in place on both ends.
The Department of Student Housing would have to change that before enacting a gender-neutral room policy. Robertson said other than that, not much would change if different genders were allowed to live together.
“No matter the gender, it all comes down to communication between the roommates,” Robertson said.
After the campaign began receiving national attention, Chang said he started to receive hate mail. Critics of the campaign believe the policy promotes promiscuity.
Robertson’s only concern would be if a heterosexual couple lived together and broke up during the course of the year. Baumann said many bloggers disagreed with the policy for the same reason as Robertson.
“I think they get tied up on the boyfriends and girlfriends living together aspect,” he said, “instead of an opportunity for people to live in a housing arrangement where they feel comfortable.”
That’s one of the main messages of the National Student Genderblind Campaign. Chang said the transgender community has been a big supporter of the campaign because transgender people often feel like they are unable to live with someone who they have the most in common with.
Whatever the reasons, the National Genderblind Campaign thinks gender-neutral rooms should be an option to every student.
“A college student is an adult and should be able to choose someone they feel comfortable with,” Chang said. “Regardless of gender.”
— Edited by Rustin Dodd
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