Beginning next year, upperclassmen students opting to live on-Grounds will have more options when choosing roommates. The Queer Student Union has partnered with Housing and Residence Life for a gender-neutral housing initiative, which HRL is referring to as “open housing.”
HRL is still working on the structure and the logistics for how the open housing process will work, Assistant Dean of Students Andrew Petters said. However, gender-neutral housing will be an option during the 2017-18 returning student application process.
“Our plan is to definitely have this be an option for students who want to live together no matter the circumstances,” Petters said. “A lot of landlords don’t ask necessarily the gender identity of certain individuals who are looking to live together. So in essence, we’re trying to mirror a little bit the options that students have off-Grounds, and we really want students to live on-Grounds for as many years as they’re interested.”
Eligible apartment buildings for open housing will include Bice House, Copeley, Faulkner and Lambeth Field Apartments.
The availability of open housing in residential colleges has yet to be determined and largely depends on the configuration of the buildings themselves, as suite styles are more suitable for open housing than hall styles.
“I think it’s feasible for us to do in Brown or the IRC, but that might be difficult for us to do in Hereford,” Petters said.
For now, first-year dorms will not be included in the open housing initiative due to the fact that unlike upperclassmen, first-year students do not have the option to select where they want to live.
“In our first-year areas, students can preference their roommates,” Petters said, “but given our randomized housing assignment process, it presents us with some logistical challenges to expand open housing within our first year areas.”
However, Petters said that considerations may be made in the future to expand open housing to first-year dorms. In the past, only a limited number of students have requested special needs in regard to gender-neutral housing, and Petters said HRL has been able to meet and will continue to meet those needs on a case-by-case basis.
HRL is currently conducting a pilot program of open housing in the Copeley Apartments consisting of students who reached out to HRL, a program which Petters said “is going well.”
QSU President Jack Chellman, a third-year College student, said the QSU has been working on this initiative since last year.
“We’ve been pushing for housing options that don’t take gender into account because right now, all housing on Grounds is gendered, so you have to live with someone of the same biological sex as yourself,” Chellman said. “Over the course of the year, we’ve been working with Housing and Residence Life and they’ve been wonderful about the idea of gender neutrality and very open to it.”
QSU spent last year “testing out the scope” of gender-neutral housing by giving surveys and collecting responses, which gave a general result showing that there was “high demand for gender neutral spaces,” Chellman said.
In addition to pushing for this year’s pilot program, QSU’s other recent work on the initiative included proposing that an auditing commission be created for open housing, a project which received support from the University Presidential Senate on Sept. 25.
Chellman said the commission will include students and faculty members who will guide and assist HRL in the process of rolling out the open housing program. Some of the responsibilities of the commission will include designing the language for the open housing applications, expressing any concerns that students and faculty may have and marketing the new option to students.
Although QSU believes gender-neutral housing will be important for the LGBTQ community, Chellman said “non-queer-identifying individuals can find comfort” in this living option as well.
“It allows for brothers and sisters to live together, for partners to live together, friends of the opposite gender,” Chellman said. “It just allows for anyone to live with whoever they feel comfortable living with.”
Overall, Chellman said he believes HRL has been very open to the idea, a sentiment which Petters agrees with.
“Everyone who I’ve spoken to about this has been very positive about this step forward, including administrators,” he said.
Chellman said he is happy with the openness to collaboration demonstrated by HRL.
“We are really impressed with HRL’s interest in promoting gender neutral spaces and getting these options to students, and we really appreciate it,” Chellman said.
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