That we fail to offer the option of mixed-gender housing shows that, as a University, we are failing to treat individuals with different sexual orientations or gender identities as equals. In a progressive community that claims to affirm diversity and respect identity, a policy that entrenches the idea that heterosexuality is the only identity worth considering when making practical decisions, should not be tolerated. Because the housing policy displays such a belief, and also because in general the University should afford its students the respect let them choose who they live with regardless of gender, Washington University needs to open to students the possibility of mixed-gender housing.
The desire for a mixed-gender housing option is not new. Associate Director of Residential Life Rob Wild stated that men and women have been asking to live together for the past ten years, and that more recently transgendered students had informed ResLife that mixed-gendered housing options would allow them to live more comfortably and potentially spare them the obligation of having to identify themselves. In response to this student input, ResLife assigned the Room Selection Task Force to look into the possibility. The Task Force proposed that the University adopt a pilot program in the Village and Greenway Apartments to test mixed-gender housing. The administration turned down the proposal on the basis that it was unsure how the student body would react to the idea. Recently, ResLife put out a survey to the student body asking students for their feelings about mixed-gender housing. While only 32 percent of students responded, 67 percent of these students voiced support for mixed-gender housing, 22 percent voiced indifference to the idea and 11 percent opposed the idea altogether. 74 percent of these students also said they would consider taking advantage of mixed-gender housing were the option available to upperclassmen. Armed with this information, ResLife will once again ask for a pilot program to be made available in the spring, and the University should allow th option.
The most common objection to mixed-gendered housing is that boyfriends and girlfriends will live together, creating problems. There are two problems with this objection. First, if by disallowing mixed-gender housing the University wishes to create better living situations by ensuring couples do not live together, it sends a strong statement that it does not consider same-sex couples to be legitimate or as important as opposite-sex couples. Second, by assuming a parental role in overseeing students’ housing choices, the University denies its students a respect they deserve – that as adults they are capable of making intelligent decisions about their living situations. Additionally, Wild said that schools offering mixed-gender housing had reported few problems resulting from couples choosing to live together.
Any conflicts that would occur from couples choosing to live together would be that couple’s own fault, so there is no reason to deny students who want to live together the option to do so, particularly if the students have claimed that not having this option is a hardship as a result of their gender identity. Though ResLife will sometimes be able to make exceptions for individual students who claim a mixed-gender housing arrangement will better accommodate their specific needs as a result of their sexual orientation or identity, it is problematic that this is merely an exception to the rule. It first forces students to come forward and identify themselves in order to make the claim, and second, it incorrectly says that there’s something special or abnormal about the individual who does so.
As a student body, we have the opportunity to influence the administration’s decision about implementing this practice. As students we also have an obligation to each other to ensure that everyone within this community is afforded respect and equality. Therefore, we should support a change to the existing single-gender housing policy in order to further both of those values in the hope that Washington University will be able to put into practice the ideals to which it gives lip service.