2015 - Gender-neutral Housing

An article I wrote as part of my coursework at SUNY New Paltz.

September 9, 2012: Billy Lucas, of Greensburg, Indiana, hanged himself from the rafters of his family's barn. September 19: Seth Walsh, of Tehachapi, California, hanged himself from a tree in his yard. September 22: Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman, jumped off the George Washington Bridge in New York City. September 23: Asher Brown, of Houston, Texas, shot himself in the head, according to Kenneth Miller, a writer for Ladies Home Journal.

These four boys didn't know each other, but they had something in common. They identified as homosexual, were not accepted at school, and came to the same conclusion: If you're gay or thought to be gay, life just isn't worth living.

Along with prompting anti-bullying campaigns nationwide, these instances, among others, sparked something else: a push for optional mixed-gender housing on college and university campuses.

In the 1970’s the colleges and universities began to allow mixed-gender residence halls. Later, mixed-gender floors. Now? Suites. Today there are over 50 colleges in the United States that offer mixed-gender housing for students living on campus.

Often the beginning stages of these efforts are in classroom buildings with gender-neutral and unisex restrooms. These restrooms have a sign outside them with both male and female symbols separated only by a slash.

A SUNY New Paltz document on Campus Services, Policies, and Organizations for LGBTQ Students explains some of the accommodations provided for these students.

SUNY New Paltz has 33 gender-neutral restrooms in 15 campus buildings. These buildings include the Child Care Center, Crispell Hall, Faculty Office Building, Jacobson Faculty Tower, Grimm House, Haggerty Administration Building, Hamner House, Hasbrouck Dining Hall, the Health Center, Hopfer House, Old Main, Old Library, Resnick Engineering, South Faculty Building and Vanderburg Annex.

Many students that benefit from these facilities say that there are not nearly enough and that they are out of the way to the common student. “I know this is unrealistic for the time being,” said Andrew Franchuck, a second year student living in one of the mixed- gender suites, “but there should be gender-neutral bathrooms wherever there are regular bathrooms.”

The idea of mixed-gender housing on college campuses began with the drive to provide comfortable and safe living conditions for transgender and LGBTQ students. Transgender students, though born one gender, identify as the opposite.

So given that, a student, for example born male that identifies as female, might want to live with students of the female gender in the college setting.

Up until recently, this was not allowed.

Now, however, many colleges are taking the initiative to accommodate these students, to make them feel safe and welcome, like they have a place where they can be themselves. The push by SUNY New Paltz reflects a nationwide movement by college campuses to accommodate every student to the best of their ability.

Mixed-gender, or gender-neutral housing, means that students have the opportunity to share a living space with one another regardless of their identified gender.

Currently, at SUNY New Paltz, there are only three mixed-gender suites in one hall, Lefevre. Two were preapproved before the fall semester of 2012, and one was added for the spring semester after a group of female students requested, and were approved, to have two male students move in with them.

The mixed-gender suites are comprised of three to four dorm rooms with a shared common room and bathroom. The individual bedrooms are gender specific, meaning that in each one there are either two males or two females living together.

Repeated attempts to contact and interview officials in the SUNY New Paltz Department of Residence Life went unanswered.

"Gender-neutral housing provides safe and inclusive options for gay, lesbian, and transgender college students who may feel uncomfortable or even unsafe being unable to select a roommate of a different sex," said Jeffery Chang, a co-founder and associate director of National Student Genderblind Campaign.

There are 64 SUNY campuses in New York State. Thirty-one campuses offer housing to their students. Only eight: Geneseo, Purchase, Albany, Stony Brook, University at Buffalo, Oswego, Postdam and New Paltz offer mixed-gender housing options, many of them very limited.

There are, as always, people who disagree that mixed-gender housing should be an option for college students living on campus.

Alec Torres, a student writer at Yale University wrote the following as an alternative perspective:

“By allowing members of the opposite sex to live together we allow both homosexuals and heterosexuals of the opposite sex to share the same living space. Is there no worry over possible sexual harassment or rape when a young college male, brimming with hormones, and often drunk, also shares the same intimate living quarters with a girl who bathes, changes, and sleeps in the same small area?

“Gender-neutral housing is not simply a question of free choice and arbitrary limitation, but has larger implications for sexual culture and individual development that should not be ignored.”

Those in favor also have valid arguments, making cases such that mixed-gender housing offers students the opportunity to room with friends or people they know they are compatible with rather than strangers as a possible alternative.

"Today's college students, gay or straight, are more likely to have close friends of a different gender and this housing option is simply the next step in the evolution of college housing," said Chang.

“I think people who are not part of the LGBTQ population will definitely take advantage of this opportunity, said Ross Cobane, a second year student living in one of the mixed- gender suites who openly identifies as homosexual, “I mean, I didn’t sign up for this because I am a part of the LGBT community, I did it because I wanted to live with these people.”

Some have mixed opinions as well. Terrence Brooks, assistant director of residential and commuter life at the State University of New York at Albany said, “It’s a catch-22. It could provide more options, and it could backfire. If there is roommate conflict, it could be harder to refill the room.”

A chart in SUNY New Paltz’s fall 2013 Housing/Room Selection Manual shows that in the coming semester three additional residence halls will sport mixed-gender suites: Bevier, Deyo and DuBois. In addition, the first floor of Gage Hall will be a mixed-gender floor.

Students wishing to live in mixed-gender suites must fill out an application and follow additional steps in order to be approved.

“I don’t think an application is necessary,” said Cobane, “if people want to have this living situation, just let them do it...[my roommate and I] don’t see it as men living with women, we just see each other as equals and go about our business.”

“It doesn’t really make sense,” said Franchuk, “if a group of friends wanted to live together off-campus, get an apartment together or something, guys and girls could live together and no one would question it. So why is it such a big deal if we want to live together on campus, regardless of LGBTQ status.”