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Gender-neutral housing nears trustee vote

Many students hope for a gender-neutral floor to help students who don’t feel comfortable with traditional gender roles, but the proposal only allows gender-neutral roommate pairs

by Brock Webb

Going through Room Draw is often a trying process even at the best of times. There are long waits, a dwindling selection of available rooms, and a host of potential problems even after the draw is done. But for some students, the problems go much deeper. They are forced to commit to gender roles that they don’t share, and feel deeply uncomfortable.

This is the dilemma faced by many transgendered students, who often do not feel comfortable within current housing system. One proposed fix for that problem is the idea of gender-neutral housing. At its core, gender-neutral housing would be a floor where students would not be forced to identify themselves as male or female. Last year, a resolution calling for the establishment of gender-neutral housing was passed by Joint Board. The Housing Committee then created a task force to develop and deliver a proposition to the Board of Trustees concerning this issue.

The issue of gender-neutral housing is relatively new to Grinnell. Some other higher education institutions, including Lewis and Clark, the University of Michigan and Arizona State have experimented with it. According to Stephanie Masta, RLC for Cowles, Norris and Dibble (CND), one major difference between Grinnell and other institutions is bathroom votes.

The floors in other institutions tend to have both single-sex and coed bathrooms, allowing gender-conscious students to avoid identifying with either gender. Bathroom voting complicates the issue. “If you are transgendered, and the bathroom vote is single-sex, you are faced with a conundrum, and that feels like it’s an unsafe space for you,” said Masta.

Masta defined gender-neutral housing as housing “... for students who don’t feel that traditional roommate pairings of biological males and biological females would provide them with safety and comfort ...” The gender-neutral housing would be open to anyone who identifies as gender-neutral, including transgender students. One important distinction, according to Masta, is that gender-neutral housing does not mean that housing will be coeducational by room, but rather gender-blind. “[The current housing system] forces people to comply with a system of gendering that they don’t agree with,” said Sarah Lu ’07. “When the school asks people to do that, that is an example of the school being an oppressor.”

There was some initial resistance when the resolution was initially presented last year. According to Lu, who was present at the debate concerning the resolution, some senators questioned the validity of the proposal before voting in affirmation.

“Although I am sympathetic to the hardships that gender-neutral students must confront, I think that the unintended consequence is that it’s going to isolate them from the rest of campus.” said Justin Abramson ’08, who is a senator from CND and was also on Joint Board last semester.

Despite questions about the proposal’s validity last year, Joint Board passed it. This year’s student government is also supporting it.

“It’s part of our agenda this year, it is something that we ... really wanted to get accomplished,” said SGA President John Bohman ’06. “I think it’s very important, not only as a way of providing for the transgender community, but ... that Grinnell as an institution makes that statement in support of that community.”

Both Bohman and Vice-president Chris Ochoa will be joining Jennifer Krohn, Stephanie Masta and Sheree Andrews in presenting the proposal to the Board of Trustees next week.

The future of gender-neutral housing remains undecided. Though Bohman and the trans-queer community hope for a gender-neutral floor, the proposal that will be presented to the Board of Trustees will request that students who identify themselves as gender-neutral be allowed to room together. Abramson supported the position as a middle ground that he thought would keep the gender-neutral community integrated with the student body.

In the future, both Bohman and Masta said that gender-neutral housing would not be only for transgendered students, but students who do not ascribe to gender roles at all, as well as queer and ally residents as well.

SideBar:

The SGA Resolution

Whereas the minority status of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally, Intersexual, Questioning and Queer (GLBTAIQQ) community causes many GLBTAIQQ issues to be left out of the campus dialogue,

Whereas all students deserve to feel physically and emotionally safe in their sexual and gender identity in their living space,

Whereas, current housing situations cause members of this community to feel uncomfortable, threatened ... and isolated,

Whereas, Grinnell College should ... provide a welcoming ... residential life to the entire student body including the GLBTAIQQ community,

Resolved, that Joint Board strongly urges the implementation of gender-neutral housing at the earliest possible time.

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