The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sept. 29 unanimously voted in favor of a resolution to create a safer and more welcoming housing policy for transgender students.
The resolution calls for more housing options in mixed-gender dorms to be available for transgender students, as well as increased access to single-gender triples, quads and suites on campus. Backers of the proposal hope to extend such options to first-year students as well as older students.
TCU Senate LGBT Community Representative John Kelly, a junior, and sophomore Erin Dimson-Doyle, who co-authored the resolution, explained that the resolution aims to make the current policy, which was last updated nine years ago, more sensitive to transgender students' needs.
Finding a comfortable living situation is a cumbersome process for transgender students, according to Dimson-Doyle.
"A large part of the resolution was saying that people could live with someone of their preferred gender identity in the regular housing lottery," she said. "To do that in the past, [the administration] would have to manually assign you to a place, and you would have to go to them and meet with them several times. It was just a longer process."
First-year transgender students currently have the option of living in either a single-occupancy dorm room or in a double-occupancy room alongside a student of their same legal gender (the one noted on their birth certificate).
After their first year at Tufts, transgender students can choose to live with a fellow transgender student, a student of their same gender identity or in the Rainbow House.
Many transgender students end up in housing situations that they may find undesirable, Kelly said, adding that some students are unable to room with friends of their identified gender or are forced into the less popular dorms.
Kelly finds these policies unfair to transgender students.
"[Many students feel] ghettoized into the worst dorms on campus or pigeonholed into living situations which are not ideal and may hamper their growth as an individual and also in an academic setting," he said. "[Being transgender] is a hard thing to come to the realization about in the first place ... Then being forced to room with someone of a gender that you don't identify with can be really hurtful for these students."
The resolution seeks to encourage changes to the policy that would help avoid some of these uncomfortable situations, Kelly said.
The authors faced little resistance from the Senate regarding the resolution, according to Dimson-Doyle.
"[There was some] discussion of specific wording, in terms of what would be the most compelling way to phrase [the resolution], but it did end up passing unanimously," she said.
Kelly noted that the Senate's unanimous support of the resolution was uplifting.
"To see them stand in solidarity with this cause and to really throw the TCU support behind this was really powerful," he said. "I think it makes a statement that this wasn't a tough vote ... I think that says something about the student body and the student body's readiness for a change like this."
Jill Zellmer, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), believes that the new resolution supports the OEO's mission of promoting equality on campus.
"We believe that transgender students are looking for equity and inclusion in how they are treated at Tufts, which is the administration's goal as well," Zellmer said. "The Senate resolution helps move us closer to meeting that goal."
Students outside of the Senate have also showed support for the project. Senior Jay Dodd said he is impressed with the efforts to improve the living situation for transgender students.
"It's a comfort to know your experience and identity is noted and accommodated at an institutional level," he said.
Although it is unclear whether the administration will implement the Senate's proposed policies, Zellmer said that the many deans have already reached out to the Senate for help in addressing transgender students' needs.
Dimson-Doyle expressed enthusiasm about the administration's accommodating attitude toward transgender students.
"I think it is a step in a long process, of course, but it was the step that we were aiming for," she said.
