Upperclassmen living in the Village and Greenway Place Apartments next year will have the option of living in gender-neutral housing as part of a pilot program being implemented by the Office of Residential Life.
According to Cheryl Stephens, associate director of residential life, the security and comfort of all students is one of the main reasons that the program is being instituted.
"A housing arrangement based solely on students' biological sexes may be unsafe for some students," said Stephens. "We hope these students will feel they have safer housing options now."
In particular, the new housing policy will aim to create a secure environment for transgender students.
"Gender-neutral housing provides students with more options to determine how they want to live and learn on campus," said Mike Brown, coordinator for LGBT student involvement and leadership in Student Activities. "It creates space for individuals on campus who have very little-namely, individuals who self-identify outside of the gender binary. This conceivably includes many transgender and gender-queer people."
Because the policy has only recently been approved, many issues relating to the pilot have yet to be addressed in the upcoming weeks before housing selection.
"We still have a lot to put into place," said Stephens. "But interested students will be able to apply for the pilot through the regular housing processes."
A majority of students on campus seems to favor the policy; according to a 1,300-student poll conducted by Residential Life, 64 percent of students said they were in support of gender-neutral housing as an option and 74 percent said they would consider it.
Student Union has endorsed gender-neutral housing in a Senate resolution.
"We're fully in support of it," said sophomore Kayla Brinkley, an SU senator.
In February of 2007, Student Union passed a resolution urging Residential Life to create gender-neutral housing.
"Students within the Washington University community are limited by the binary notion of gender present in current residential policy," said the resolution.
According to the resolution, a gender-neutral housing policy would serve to "promote the University's goal of fostering equality."
Stephens said that gender-neutral housing was also recommended by the GLBTQIA Task Force, which was comprised of students, faculty, and administrators.
"Gender-neutral housing is not simply an LGBT issue, though," said Brown. "There are presumably lots of students who do not identify as LGBTIQA who find it frustrating that they can't live with the individual they believe to be the best fit unless they move off campus."
The University is one of about 25 colleges and universities nationwide to institute some kind of "gender-neutral housing option," according to data taken from the Transgender Law and Policy Institute.
The schools that have adopted gender-neutral housing policies range from small, private institutions such as Oberlin College to large, state universities like the University of Michigan. As of this semester, Harvard University has also instituted a limited gender-neutral housing policy.
Students seeking more information about gender-neutral housing on campus should visit housingselection.wustl.edu.
