Transgender News: As schools reform dorms, 'U' holds out

Nine schools started offering gender-blind housing this year
By Jillian Berman, Daily Staff Reporter on 4/10/08

Finding the right roommate can be a difficult task. A night owl and an early riser might not be the best fit, while a studious person probably wouldn't want to live with an aspiring rock star. But can students of the opposite sex live together in harmony?
In recent years, more and more colleges across the country have tried to make it work.
This year, top schools like Stanford University and Dartmouth College have joined a list of about 20 colleges nationwide offering gender-neutral housing, which allows students to room with each other regardless of their gender. Nine schools have changed their policies within the last year to include gender-neutral housing, and another 12 colleges have said they plan to in the near future.
In the past, the specialized housing plans were mainly geared toward students who identified as transgender.
Joan Giblin, director of residential life and housing at Clark University in Massachusetts, said the change, made last fall, was well received by students. Giblin, who credited students with pressuring the school on the policy change, said it was a freshman who spearheaded the effort to alter the original policy in the first place. The change took less than two years to implement, she said.
Murray MacDonald, Dartmouth's associate director for undergraduate housing, said that while some alumni voiced concerns about the system, most students there supported the system after it launched last fall.
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