The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News September 24, 2004

Little demand for co-ed dorm rooms

When the novel idea to create co-ed, or “gender neutral,” dorm rooms in Noah was put into effect, Residential Housing and Dining expected a great deal of interest. However, there has been little demand for the new type of housing.

“There is only one room in Noah that is actually gender neutral,” said ResLife Director Kim LaFond.

Meanwhile the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association made its gender neutral policy official last year, but according to President Kathleen Tierney, gender neutral housing is nothing new in OSCA.

“OSCA has a long history of gender neutral rooming,” she said.

Though the change in policy was aimed at transgender students, as long as a student is an upperclassman, Residential Life does not care who occupies the rooms.

“Once village housing became more popular in fall of 2002, transgender and non-transgender students alike have utilized these rooms,” LaFond said.

“[Gender neutral rooming] has historically been OSCA’s policy,” Tierney said. “It was not advertised because, until recently, it was a violation of College policy.”

Tierney adds that in the past OSCA had two separate room lists: the actual rooms and the official rooms. The official room list was the information provided to the College and they were always gender specific.

“Since the College has revised its policy, OSCA is now able to be in compliance with College policy while meeting the needs of its members,” Tierney said.

“This is the first year that it was made a commitment [by the College] to transgender students,” said LaFond.

When asked why this policy was created for College students by Residential Life, LaFond said, “Research has shown that privacy is important for these students, so single rooms were [initially] designed for them.

As first-year students they were given a single room to help with the process. But what if these students decided that they wanted to live with someone? If they want a roommate this gives them some options.

Both Residential Life and Dining and OSCA maintain that these living arrangements are not available to first-year students, only juniors and seniors and that these arrangements can be made regardless of the gender identity or non-identity of the people involved.

LaFond believes that the College will continue to keep these rooms in use because “as the need increases, it will grow although every building will not be gender neutral. These are rooming arrangements for adults; it’s good for students to have an option.”
 
 

   

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