The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) announced earlier this month that it would be offering gender-neutral housing in certain dormitories. The option will be available by application to sophomores, juniors and seniors and will be restricted to the Latin Way suites and the Bush Hall double bedrooms.
Gender-neutral, or open, housing, is an option that is becoming more prevalent at colleges around the country each year. The prospect of choosing a roommate regardless of gender identity is an issue that is most directly relevant to the transgender community, but the demand for gender-neutral housing does not end there. There are a number of reasons Tufts students may feel more comfortable living with a member of the opposite sex, not to mention that some may simply want to live in an apartment with their friends regardless of gender.
While we are pleased that ResLife has begun to implement a long overdue gender-neutral housing policy, these steps don't go nearly far enough. By restricting gender-neutral living options to the Bush Hall and Latin Way dormitories (other than Sophia Gordon Hall and handful of other highly coveted apartments, where mixed-gender suites were already permitted), students who desire a mixed-gender living situation are unfairly deprived of attractive options like West Hall, Wren Hall, and Hillside Apartments. By limiting the gender-neutral options to just two dorms, ResLife may not be able to meet the demand for gender-neutral housing, needlessly leaving some students in what might turn out to be uncomfortable living situations.
Though the issue most directly concerns transgender students, many students have friends of the opposite gender with whom they'd like to live, and as long as students consent to living in a suite together, there's no reason they shouldn't be allowed to do so.
ResLife's current guidelines for mixing genders in most on-campus apartments are, to be blunt, nonsensical. Under the current policy, during the apartment lottery, students may only form single-gender groups if they want to live in any apartment outside of those in Latin Way or Sophia Gordon. But if not all apartments are filled during apartment selection, they will be opened up to the general lottery, and both males and females will be allowed to populate a single apartment. It simply doesn't make sense that a group of mixed-gender friends can't elect to live together in a Hillsides apartment, but a group of mixed-gender strangers can end up doing so by accident.
The common argument against gender-neutral housing is that allowing students of opposite genders to room together opens the door to romantically involved students sharing a living space. Frankly, it's not ResLife's job to police the living decisions students make. In most cases, it probably isn't a good idea for couples to live together on campus, but that's a decision couples should make on their own and not have forced upon them by way of an outdated housing policy.
That argument also ignores the fact that gay couples at Tufts — of which there are plenty — are already able to live together under the current housing rules, so attempting to prevent couples from rooming together is not only misguided and presumptuous but futile as well.
Another issue with the new policy is that it excludes freshmen, the group that perhaps most needs access to gender-neutral housing. When gender-neutral housing isn't available, transgender upperclassmen can at least select a student to live with who they know will be tolerant of their gender identity. But freshmen students have no idea with whom they will be paired, and without a gender-neutral policy to opt into, no safeguard exists to prevent them from being paired with a hostile roommate. (This applies not only to transgender students but to all students on the LGBT spectrum.)
The flaws in the new policy notwithstanding, ResLife did an extremely poor job of advertising the availability of gender-neutral housing. Most apartment selections occur in mid-to-late February, but ResLife did not announce the new policy until Feb. 3, leaving students who might have considered living in a mixed-gender environment little time to make a decision and get a group together. And the details of the policy have been spotty. An email describing the availability of gender-neutral housing that students were told to expect on Feb. 13 was never received.
We commend ResLife for initiating a gender-neutral housing policy on campus. It was sorely needed. But for it to be effective, ResLife must broaden the availability and do a better job communicating the specifics of the policy to the student body.
