FEATURES

Illustration by Headcase Design

College years come with new freedoms: broader social circles, the ability to attend (or skip) classes, choosing a major, the lack of curfews. And now, at Miami University—the picturesque, red-bricked campus in Oxford, Ohio, known for its stout academic reputation and a student body not known for progressive social beliefs—the freedom to choose one’s roommate, even one of the opposite sex.

Miami’s policy for gender-neutral housing, an emerging campus trend across the country, permits opposite-sex students to cohabitate in one of several designated on-campus rooms after consultation with a Residence Life staff member. What’s prompting the movement? David Norton, cofounder and executive director of The National Student Genderblind Campaign, sees two main motivations: the need to foster an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender)-friendly campus environment; and to empower all students with more freedom. “Each school has its own take on how and why to change [its housing] policy,” Norton says. “A lot see it as a social justice campaign—something that affects all students.”

While isolated examples of gender-neutral housing date back to the 1970s, the movement only entered the mainstream public consciousness in 2004, when national media outlets began writing about the University of Southern Maine and Sarah Lawrence College, both of which had recently implemented the policy. Today approximately 50 institutions nationwide offer the option. Many of these universities could be categorized as predictably progressive: Oberlin, Berkeley, Wesleyan. But Miami University, a.k.a. “J. Crew U.”—the school that claims both Ben Roethlisberger and a straggling 9.8 percent minority population—is the first major university in the region with a specific policy that allows males and females to share a dorm room.

“[This policy] is for students who feel that sex-segregated housing is not an option,” says Demere Woolway, assistant director in Miami’s Office of Diversity Affairs and Coordinator of GLBTQ Services. “That may include transgender students, but it’s more about meeting a need. It’s about making a place where you feel safe and you feel comfortable. And that’s something we want to do for all our students.”

While Miami’s policy wasn’t intended for romantic couples, officials won’t police students who opt in to the program. “We treat our students as adults, and they can make their own housing choices,” Woolway says. And of course, legally, most underclassmen are considered adults. But the obvious pushback against gender-neutral housing revolves around the question of whether 19-year-olds, or even 22-year-olds, are mature enough to handle the responsibility of so-called “gender liberation.” “[Miami’s policy] is interesting, but I don’t know if it’s good,” says M.U. senior Mitch Robertson, a 22-year-old history and diplomacy and foreign affairs double major. “How right are we? We’re only in our 20s. We might think we know what’s best, but it’s trial and error.”

Adding to the debate is the fact that parental consent is not necessary for a student to request opposite-sex housing. But Jerry Olson, director of residence life at Miami, points out that most parental involvement occurs during a student’s first year—when, in general, students would not be permitted to live with opposite-sex roommates (Olson adds that exceptions can be made for first-year students who have needs that require gender-neutral housing). Moreover, he isn’t particularly worried about any real or perceived culture shock that parents might experience. “There are always policies that seem radical at the time, but down the road they seem like no big deal,” Olson says.

“From a parent’s point of view, there are certain challenges for a dorm when you get mixed genders [living together], as far as privacy and so on,” says M.U. Parents Council member Mike Stromberg, a Madeira resident who has sophomore and senior sons attending Miami. “Depending on the individual students, it might put them in a weird situation [to live around gender-neutral housing]. I understand why [institutions] do it—making a more comfortable situation for some folks. But it might make it uncomfortable for other folks. It’s hard to say which is the bigger issue.”

As of late June, when this article went to press, only nine Miami University students had registered to move into gender-neutral housing this semester. Designated rooms include suite-style residence halls sharing a common bathroom between two dual-occupancy rooms, plus a section of an apartment-style, on-campus facility. Miami sought the counsel of other institutions for policy verbiage and to forecast long-term response, including that of University of California Riverside (UCR), the first public institution to offer gender-neutral housing to all students. Preparedness helps, of course. But certainly another reason for offering gender-neutral housing is that it could play a key role in debunking long-held presumptions that Miami hosts an intolerant, homogenous student body.

“Let’s face it—Miami is not known for its diversity,” read a summer 2010 editorial in The Miami Student, the university’s student newspaper. “It may never be, but its students and faculty can work toward creating an accepting environment...Miami does try to encourage diversity, but its progress sometimes falters.” Even Mitch Robertson, the M.U. double major, seems to agree with that sentiment. “Maybe Miami is making an effort to get rid of a stereotype,” he says. “People don’t listen to each other here. They have their views. They’re set in their ways. They like to talk more than listen. This is good for discussion. It’s about being involved in a debate that stretches their thinking.”

The Ins And Outs

The Band Wagon
Institutions with a gender-neutral housing policy include: Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Colorado College, Ithaca College, Oberlin College, Oregon State University, and Wesleyan University.

Segregated Spaces
Six states have anti-cohabitation laws on the books: Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina, and
West Virginia.

Engendered
1870s: Men and women begin to attend the same colleges.
1970s: Co-ed residence halls begin gaining prevalence.
1990s: Men and women begin living on the same residence floors.
2000s: Gender-neutral room policies are enacted.

Adult Education
For more information about the nationwide gender-neutral housing movement, visit www.genderblind.org, a volunteer-run, primarily web-focused campaign with data and resources for schools considering implementation of a gender-neutral housing policy.

Originally published in the August 2010 issue.