Several organizations on campus have joined forces to gather student input and create a proposal to bring gender-neutral housing to the Tempe campus as early as fall 2012.
Two options are being considered, both of which would allow students to request placement in gender-neutral housing in order to ensure the comfort and safety of students who identify themselves as LGBTQ.
Gender-neutral housing is typically implemented as a solution for transgender and gender nonconforming students and then extended to the greater LGBTQ community, said Brendan Pantilione, a global studies freshman and USG university initiative intern.
“If you identify as a gender different than your biological gender, it kind of puts administration in a strange situation,” Pantilione said. “If they don’t know where to put you, they just put you in a single room, which for a lot of people feels isolating.”
LGBTQ students have voiced concerns of feeling unsafe living in the dorms but not being welcome at home because of their sexuality. This leaves them in a situation of having nowhere safe to live, which is unacceptable, USG government relations staffer Terry Jones said.
“[ASU President Michael] Crow is a firm believer in a sense of community, and we see a lot of his vision for this,” Jones said at an open forum on the topic last Thursday. “What he fails to do is actually go further, and actually seek out those members of marginalized communities and find ways to incorporate them into the larger community.”
Zachary Yentzer, director of campus affairs for the Residence Hall Association, said ASU is fortunate to have an administration and ResLife staff that is willing to work with students to implement gender-neutral housing.
“A lot of student efforts begin with a few students with an idea who then come to the administration and say, ‘Here is our idea,’” Yentzer said. “Then they say, ‘What do students think?’ and the answer is usually we don’t know.”
In order to gather student opinions, USG and RHA have posted a survey online, which would allow students to offer feedback on the two proposed strategies for implementing gender-neutral housing.
One option is modeled after UA’s pilot program beginning next fall as well as current ASU learning communities, and would designate one area of an existing dorm for gender-neutral housing.
Students would apply to be placed in the learning community and would be surrounded by fellow LGBTQ students and specially trained CAs.
The alternative strategy is an opt-in, which would allow students to check a box requesting a gender-neutral roommate and suitemates when applying for housing. With this option, LGBTQ students would be interspersed throughout various dorms.
ASU LGBTQ Coalition members Casey Clowes and Garrett Lewis said they both favor the learning community options.
“It’s not a gay thing, it’s a safety thing,” Lewis said. “It’s about safety and whether or not you feel comfortable, and not just with your roommate, but maybe someone down the hall from you. It’s about establishing a safe place to go home to, rather than encouraging academics.”
Anthropology junior Willow Sha’yera, who identifies herself as a lesbian, said she has found herself in more than one uncomfortable housing situation during her time at ASU and has faced extensive harassment because of her sexuality.
“I was on a three-week study abroad program where I had a suitemate be verbally and emotionally abusive the whole time, and I was eventually moved to a room by myself as soon as I came out to one of the advisers,” Sha’yera said. “If I was in a situation like that in a residence hall, I would absolutely check that box.”
Sha’yera said she also has a close, transgender friend who quit his job as a CA and moved off campus following death threats that were ignored by administration.
“He said he was afraid for his life and didn’t feel safe living on campus,” she said.
ASU Residential Life senior director Kendra Hunter said Campus Housing is dedicated to serving each individual student and finding housing solutions that accommodate their individual needs, including LGBTQ and gender nonconforming students.
“The students of RHA, USG and the LGBTQA Coalition are in the early stages of gathering student input regarding gender neutral housing and have not proposed anything to date,” she said. “We will review the proposal in its entirety once these student leaders have submitted [their proposal].”
Women and gender studies junior Jon Pabillaran said he is very upset that the student body must present a unified voice on the issue in order to gain approval from administration.
“I feel somewhat uncomfortable that we need to have a majority opinion on this,” he said. “It’s people’s safety. We shouldn’t be having a vote on it … because having the majority opinion is kind of unrealistic. I don’t think it’s a reason to not do it just because the whole student body is not in support of it. That’s ridiculous.”
Pantilione said gender-neutral housing is not a new concept and that it can be accomplished at ASU.
“It’s not a new idea. It’s all over the east coast,” Pantilione said. “It’s new to Arizona because we’re a sexually conservative state.”
Pantilione and Yentzer agreed this might actually benefit students at ASU because they have several successful models to base their proposal on and to present as evidence for the increased safety gender-neutral housing creates.
“Nothing that’s ever done right is done quickly in a short amount of time,” Yentzer said. “We’re dedicated to the right solution and we’ve been working on this for less than a full semester.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
