Mixed housing

College campuses throughout the nation have strayed from tradition when it comes to dorm-style living by introducing a "gender-neutral" option. But while it is not yet available at the University of Washington, this fall the UW RSO, Students Organizing for LGBT Equality (SOLE), began campaigning to introduce the new living arrangement in the residence halls. "We're kind of behind the times when you look at other universities," said Erica Sekins, a graduate student assistant at the UW's Q Center. "We've been pushing for some sort of housing solution for a long time. I think right now it's just coordinating the efforts and making sure student voice is behind us, which as far as we can tell, it is." Apartment-style dorms are currently being built on Northeast Campus Parkway for fall 2011. The Q Center, SOLE and the Resident Hall Student Association (RHSA) see this as an advantageous time to re-examine gender-neutral housing. "At the Q Center we see a lot of students coming in having conflicts with their roommates experiencing intense homophobia," Sekins said. "There's kind of an individualized system in place where someone has to file a complaint and then get reassigned to a different room, with the chance that [the] new roommate is potentially homophobic [also]." Gender-neutral housing, which has already been installed on campuses nationwide, is intended to create more inclusive living arrangements. "The motivation behind pursuing gender-neutral housing is to provide housing for students who may not identify as 'male' or 'female' and/or any student who would be more comfortable living somewhere that doesn't ask their gender identity," said Emma Tessier, RHSA president. "The benefit to UW students is, first, to have a university with housing options comparable to other similar institutions, and second, to have residence halls that are as safe and inclusive as possible." SOLE hopes that gender-neutral housing will create a safe space for at-risk students who may feel targeted because of their sexual identity. "My roommate was not homophobic, but her parents were," said Amanda, a graduate student who wishes to keep her real name anonymous. "She had to lie to her parents, to say she moved out so she could live with me. I had to leave the room if her parents were going to come by." Tessier explained that the university is pursuing the gender-neutral housing initiative, but that it is still in the "information-collecting phase." RHSA ran a survey from Oct. 27 to Nov. 24 asking for student opinions about gender-neutral housing and bathroom options. But, Tessier said, in order to have statistically significant results, at least 10 percent of residents must respond. So far, the survey results are on track to meet that goal. Sekins said that she thinks the university is worried about promiscuity and relationships between roommates, but that expanding housing options is also a matter of comfort. "The whole year it was a really awkward situation where I had to deal with homophobia regularly," Amanda said, "which is really uncomfortable." Using the student voices gathered in the survey, the RHSA Executive Board will craft legislation that it plans to introduce to the RHSA General Council in the first weeks of January. In the meantime, SOLE has created a petition for gender-neutral housing with a tentative deadline of Dec. 18. While the petition will not guarantee the new option, the hope is that it will show student support for the issue. The petition reads: "We believe that students should be allowed to choose whomever they wish to live in the residence halls with regardless of their gender." Tessier said that in addition to collecting data, RHSA is also making efforts to ensure that the whole campus uses the same definition of gender-neutral housing, so as to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. "Gender-neutral housing allows same-gender roommates, opposite-gender roommates or other gender-identity roommate pairings, regardless of physical sex," Tessier said. "To clarify, residents of gender-neutral housing may request any roommate." Sekins added that gender-neutral housing would be entirely voluntary, but could help bypass the uncertainty of roommate selection. "So everybody who's signing up for this housing is saying, 'I want to live with whoever I get assigned [to], regardless of what gender they identify with, regardless of their sex, etc.'" Chris Jaehne, HFS assistant director for Residential Life, explained that if the RHSA General Council approves a resolution, it will be presented to Residential Life and HFS. "We are always open and interested in better ways in which we can serve our students," he said. "We will work with RHSA, as we do with all initiatives and issues put forth by our students." Reach reporter Becka Gross at lifestyles@dailyuw.com. *The quote: "The motivation behind pursuing gender-neutral housing ... ," was incorrectly attributed to Chris Jaehne. The comment was in fact made by Emma Tessier.

Mixed housing

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