Genderblind housing possible

Madeleine Lloyd-Davies, BC ’11, is worried about discomfort upon moving into her dormitory next fall—and it’s not because of her lottery number.

Next year, she will live in the Q house, a special interest community for LGBTQ students. But rather than having the option of living with a member of the opposite sex, she’ll be forced to live with another queer girl, making for what could be an uncomfortable living situation.

“We’re more likely to get romantically involved than if I were to live with a guy,” Lloyd-Davies said. “In the lesbian community at Barnard, there have been so many instances of people sleeping with their roommates.”

In light of situations similar to Lloyd-Davies’, a number of students are calling for a gender-blind rooming policy. Since the idea was proposed in November by Janelle Batta, BC ’11 and a member of the Student Government Association’s Committee on Diversity, support has been garnered for changes in both Barnard’s and Columbia’s housing policies. But as the policy meets administrative obstacles, it remains unclear just how successful the gender-blind rooming campaign will be.

Batta’s proposal, inspired by the National Student Genderblind Campaign, would allow sophomores, juniors, and seniors to live together in a double, triple, or quadruple occupancy room. Neither biological sex nor gender identity would be considered in the housing selection process.

“This campaign is meant to remedy the lack of acknowledgment of the LGBTQ population in the Housing office, and to change the institutionalized heteronormative assumption that all Barnard students are straight and therefore should live with women because that isn’t who they are attracted to,” Batta explained.

In December, Batta presented the idea to the Student Government Association and later met with director of Residential Life and Housing, Annie Aversa, as well as associate director for housing operations, Matt Kingston. Batta said that the administration’s response was that Barnard could not move forward with a gender-blind housing proposal without the support of Columbia Housing and Dining.

“If we were to say that a male and female could live in a double together, that wouldn’t be able to happen unless Columbia were to allow that student,” Kingston said, explaining why Columbia housing’s agreement is a prerequisite.

Yet Columbia housing administrators, while aware of the ongoing campaign at Barnard, said they have yet to hear from any students at Columbia.

“Given that so many of our residential halls are suites with single rooms inside, we feel students of different genders have plenty of opportunities to live together under the current policies and protocols,” Vice President of Student Auxiliary and Business Services Scott Wright said. But, he articulated, “if this was something that Columbia students felt strongly about then we would be happy to explore the possibilities.”

While proposals are drafted and decisions are being made and finalized by students on both sides of Broadway, support for the gender-blind rooming campaign continues to increase. Batta has created an official Web site for the campaign—Columbia.genderblind.org—in order to increase transparency and to publish statements from students. So far, the site features a number of statements of approval from campus queer groups and from individual students.

“Gender-blind rooming is one way that we can make Barnard and Columbia more comfortable for and more supportive of transgender students,” Co-president of campus group Q Natalie Wittlin said, whose group posted a statement of support on the site.

And as this movement continues to gain support at the campus level, it has captured support nationally.

“I would like to emphasize the historical significance of Barnard and Columbia’s work on the issue,” Jeffrey Chang, co-founder and associate director of the National Student Genderblind campaign, said. “In the late 1960s, Barnard and Columbia students were instrumental in overturning outdated parietal rules that paved the way for coed dormitories, living arrangements, and gender-neutral housing as we have it today on campuses across the country.”