Gender-Neutral Housing

We recently discussed the issue of gender-nuetrality during my weekly meetings within the Orientation Office. The issue is that the NEw Jersey state university has taken steps towards allowing male and female students to share rooms in an effort to become a more inclusive community for gay students. In a statement made by the university, they layout their plan for implementing this decision, "Starting this fall, all students – whether gay, lesbian, transgender or heterosexual – can choose either male or female roommates under the pilot program. Men and women will share bathrooms." This pilot program was created after the highly publicized suicide of a gay student last year at Rutgers. The student killed himself after his roommate invaded his privacy by recording him during sexual interaction with another man via webcam. Since many other universities are following suit and offering similar housing options (University of Maryland, Columbia University, George Washington University) it seem pertinent that we discuss the option being made available at JMU. During the meeting we couldn't really come up with a consensus. Many people agreed that yes, it "seemed" like a good idea in a perfect world but how would you be able to control whole gets access to mixed sexed dorms? Wouldn't this cause further discrimination by delegating a specific section of housing to gay and transgendered this pilot program is among the campus and how the university plans on monitoring or "screening" individuals that apply for the housing.ed individuals? Although this is a step in the right direction for creating a more inclusive campus, I am curious to see how well reci