It is time to consider gender-neutral housing in earnest

There are few times in a student’s journey through college as daunting as the early days of freshman year. The opening of a new chapter of life at a new school is awkward at best, but can occasionally devolve into a period of intense discomfort. So long as on-campus living is compulsory during freshman year or financially beneficial, it’s up to the housing department to do everything in its power to ensure that residence halls foster a culture of acceptance and inclusion.

The Department of Housing and Residential Education has provided this with both coed and single-sex halls and dormitories, along with living-learning communities. But without a gender nonspecific housing option, there is still work to be done. As peer institutions have implemented such an option, UNC has discussed the possibility of eventually doing the same.

That time is now.

Never before this year have students so extensively vocalized their demand for this option. From the Residence Hall Association to Student Congress — which only narrowly endorsed the measure — students have offered their support. And today, after many months and more than 1,100 signatures, students will present Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp a petition and proposal for a gender nonspecific option at UNC.

Crisp, who will digest the proposal and submit a recommendation to Chancellor Holden Thorp, views the gender nonspecific option through the appropriate lens. Above all else, Crisp said he sees gender nonspecific housing as an issue concerning students’ health, safety and sense of inclusivity. While he doesn’t anticipate a significant number of students ultimately requesting this arrangement, he does see the issues addressed by gender nonspecific housing as “significant any time.”

That approach should be followed from Crisp’s office to the chancellor’s and, ultimately, to the Board of Trustees. And it should trump any minor feasibility issues that might come into play.

The University need look no further than its peer institutions for a workable first step.

Roommate requests

This year, the University of Michigan began allowing students identifying as transgender or gender non-conforming to live together, so long as they requested each other by name. Their approach includes collaboration with the Spectrum Center, the UNC LGBTQ Center’s counterpart at the University of Michigan.

As Peter Logan, director of housing communications, noted in an interview Thursday, gender identity is variable, and randomly assigned transgender or gender non-conforming roommates would not necessarily feel comfortable together. It is for this reason that universities like UNC should apply a roommate request system as a first step in making gender nonspecific housing a reality.

With a by-name roommate selection system already in place, a similar measure would be feasible at the University. It might prove difficult for incoming freshmen to arrange but should exist for students feeling uncomfortable upon moving in or for those returning to on-campus living for another year.

Since 2005, Logan said the University of Michigan has accommodated the concerns of students seeking a more comfortable living situation on a case-by-case basis, assigning them new roommates or putting them in single suites that provided more privacy. Only about a half-dozen students have requested gender nonspecific housing, partially because a lengthy deliberation process pushed the policy’s implementation to late February when students had already signed up for more conventional on-campus living arrangements.

UNC must learn from the University of Michigan and be sure to have a well-thought-out, but not an unnecessarily drawn-out, decision-making process. With urgency, UNC can offer incoming freshmen and returning on-campus residents the opportunity to opt into a gender-neutral environment as early as next year.

Where to go

Some students will naturally feel uneasy about this change. To ensure that the comfort of some students doesn’t come at the cost of others, the University would be wise to initiate gender-neutral housing in an apartment-style complex like Ram Village or in newer South Campus residence halls like Craige North, Horton or Hardin. These would provide the privacy of suite-style rooms that Michigan has provided since 2005 or the apartments Duke University began providing this year for students seeking gender-neutral housing.

Like Duke, UNC is looking into potential legal hurdles. But the state’s 201-year-old law barring unmarried couples from living together was struck down in 2006. In beginning a legal review, the University appears to be taking the swift action students have resoundingly requested. Barring any legal surprise, the University has nothing standing in its path.

And, like any path worth taking for the University, the students cleared it.