On the 2006-2007 Room and Board Application, there is no question asking “male or female.” Instead, there is a spot for gender identity, requesting that the applicant state if they identify as a woman, man, transgender or other (the applicant is instructed to choose all that apply). This is an encouraging move from Residential Life. The real question, however, is how will ResLife treat students who identify as transgender?

One solution that many other colleges and universities have adopted is gender-neutral housing. The Colorado College Queer-Straight Alliance defines gender-neutral housing as “an environment where student housing is not restricted to traditional limitations of the gender binary.” Often, this is not offered to incoming freshmen unless the person requests it and is limited to only a couple dorms, differentiating gender-neutral housing from a policy allowing co-ed housing. This option has been made available to students at many colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Brown and Swarthmore.

Other colleges have their own variations of gender-neutral housing. Tufts, for example, allows transgender students the option of living in a single room in a standard dorm or a mixed-gender suite in Tufts’ LGBTIQAA (Tufts stops after T though) house called the Rainbow House. Oberlin even gives transgender students priority for singles. This is an option that should come to the University.

A separate LGBTIQAA house, on the other hand, would not be helpful. There can be a transgender bloc in the Village, as there is for other groups like the Muslim Students Association. But much like Muslim students and other groups that have blocs in the Village, transgender students should have the same access to any suite on the 40 that anyone else has. Designating a special transgender house would just keep these students separate from other students and would serve as a backhanded way of telling them that they were different. It would also prevent exposing other students to another way of life, which would be a huge blow to any claim of diversity by the University.

If gender-neutral housing is instituted at the University, applicants would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. At most of the schools that have gender-neutral housing, those who choose to live in these rooms are forced to sign a consent form to ensure that these students aren’t just trying to get around the system. If the penalties for breaking the agreement are harsh enough, a similar method can be put into place here. The same way that ResLife would try to avoid putting an asthmatic student with a smoker, a transgender student (or any other LGBTIQAA) shouldn’t be forced to live in a single to avoid the risk of winding up with an intolerant roommate.

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