ResLife Shakes It Up With Co-Ed Experiment

By: Kate King

Posted: 11/26/07

Living on-campus at UConn has always meant same-sex housing, however a new pilot program introduced by ResLife this year is allowing some students to live with roommates of the opposite gender.

The pilot program for gender-neutral housing consists of six students, who live in a co-ed suite in Garrigus Suites according to Vu Tran, a 3rd-semester business major and a participant in the program. The suit consists of two rooms connected by a bathroom with three women living in one room and two men and one female occuping the other.

ResLife has been talking about gender-neutral housing for a couple of years, according to Maureen Armstrong, coordinator of housing assignments for ResLife at UConn. This is the first year UConn has tried this type of undergraduate housing.

"One of our goals for the 2007-2008 academic year was to try to develop gender-neutral housing to meet a variety of needs," Armstrong said.

Some students have requested to live with cousins or siblings of the opposite sex for religious or cultural reasons, according to Armstrong.

Another need that Reslife is hoping to address in particular is that of the rising transgender community at UConn, according to Armstrong. In the past, UConn has dealt with the housing needs of transgender students on an individual basis.

The problem with this process was that it forced students to approach housing services with their needs, Armstrong said. The hope with gender-neutral housing is that it will give students an opportunity to live in the situation that is most comfortable for them without having to explain why.

Besides transgender students, others from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community can also benefit from gender-neutral housing.

"Gender-neutral housing would be a safe environment for some people in regards to gender identity and expression," said Fleurette King, the director of Rainbow Center at UConn.

King is a recent addition to the Rainbow Center staff, joining in August. Because she is a new arrival, she was not part of the development process for this year's pilot program, although she has been contacted by Reslife and expects to be part of the process in the future.

Although the Rainbow Center is an important partnership, the LGBT community is not the sole reason behind the decision to explore gender-neutral housing, according to Armstrong. However, she expects that the LGBT community "will probably garner a strong percent of the population" of gender-neutral housing.

Students will not have to identify their reasons for wanting to live in gender-neutral housing, according to Armstrong. The six students who are part of the current program were not asked why they wanted to participate.

Tran, who is gay, is part of the pilot program and likes living in gender-neutral housing. The main benefit for him is that he doesn't have to deal with the awkwardness of living with a straight roommate who might not be comfortable with his sexuality.

"I personally find that [gender-neutral housing] is a better situation for me, it's not for everyone but I personally feel better living with a girl," Tran said, adding that in his living arrangement last year he felt uncomfortable discussing that he was gay with his straight roommate and "bringing relationships back to the dorm room."

Tran does believe that there are a few kinks with the program that need to be worked out. For example, there was confusion at the beginning of the year because the floor's community assistant had not been informed about the pilot program.

In the future, Tran would like to see the program develop better training for CAs and also more awareness for gender-neutral housing on campus. He also cited the need for gender-neutral bathrooms.

However, on the whole, Tran is happy with his experience in gender-neutral housing.

"I think it's a very good idea. I think it gives students the opportunity to not be limited by their gender and room on the basis of who they want to relate with and who they get along with rather than gender," Tran said.

Alison Berk, a 7th-semester philosophy major and Tran's roommate, likes living in gender-neutral housing also.

For Berk, gender-neutral housing means not having to have an awkward conversation about her sexuality with a new roommate when the two connect at the end of the summer to discuss who will be bringing the refrigerator.

"It's nice living with someone who you know is comfortable with who you are," Berk said.

In the future Reslife hopes to expand gender-neutral housing to include more than one suite, according to Armstrong. All future plans for expansion of the program will be based on need and interest demonstrated by the UConn student body.

"Twenty to 40 students might be ideal," Armstrong said. "it really depends on interest."

Armstrong said it is too early in the decision making process to give many concrete details regarding the future of gender-neutral housing. However, Armstrong believes that the housing will be initially open to only returning students, not freshman.

While gender-neutral housing is a new program at UConn, it has been implemented in several other schools across the country, according to Armstrong.

"We're not as cutting edge as we might seem," Armstrong said, adding that schools such as Ithaca College, the University of Colorado and the University of Massachusetts all have gender-neutral housing.

At the Wesleyan University, gender-neutral housing has been thoroughly incorporated into undergraduate housing, according to Wesleyan's assistant director for Residential Life Melissa Towers. Returning students aren't asked their gender when filling out housing forms and are free to live with whomever they want on campus.

The University of Pennsylvania also has provided the option of gender-neutral housing for undergraduate students, according to Ron Ozio, Pennsylvania's director of media relations. The number of students who live in this housing is small, less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the undergraduate class, according to Ozio. However, all upper-class students who are at least 18 years of age are eligible to live in gender-neutral housing.

Contact Kate King at Katherine.King@UConn.edu.