Gender-neutral housing finding its place at OU

Ohio University students now have the option to participate in Residential Housing's Gender Neutral Housing (GNH) program for the current academic year. GNH is a specialized living community where students of both sexes live in the same room based on compatibility, not based on gender or sexual orientation.

Amelia Shaw, commissioner of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) organization on the OU campus, serves as resident assistant for the GNH community. Shaw has been promoting the program on campus since last year. "It's something I'm very passionate about," she said. "I believe everyone deserves to live in an environment where they feel safe and comfortable."

At the same time that Shaw was working on promoting gender-neutral housing, Residential Housing staff had also been researching GNH for OU students. Judy Piercy, associate director of student affairs, explained how OU got involved. "We attended a conference last summer and heard that other schools were doing this, so we started a project in the fall, and Student Senate joined in the middle of fall, which really helped get the process moving," she said.

According to Residential Housing's website, Student Senate surveyed 1,176 students on the Athens campus last fall and found that 87 percent favored having gender-neutral housing at OU. Furthermore, more than half of 1,026 students expressed interest in living in these dorm communities.

Currently, 15 students are living in the GNH section of Residential Housing, which is located on the third floor of Smith Hall on South Green. Smith Hall offers mod-style floor plans consisting of more single rooms than doubles.

Restrooms in mod-style dorms such as Smith Hall are private rather than public. Restrooms are not identified by "Male" or "Female," but say "Occupied" or "Open" instead. However, Piercy said it's possible to have gender-neutral housing in dorms with public restrooms and that future communities will not be limited to the mod-style dorms.

At first, some opposition arose against the program, confirmed Christine Sheets, executive director of student affairs. "Most of the calls we received were concerns about couples living together as opposed to LGBT concerns," she said. "There was a worry that we were formally condoning co-ed housing."

Even though students can already live in co-ed environments at OU, some parents and members of the community raised moral objections.

"There were very few objections though," Piercy added. "Some don't support the LGBT lifestyle, but the conversations were very good, and I enjoyed sharing our school's philosophy and commitment to diversity. Whether or not they agreed, I appreciated people's willingness to engage."

Most of the parents' objections were eased once they learned that it was not campus-wide and that students have a choice to participate in the program, according to Piercy.

Though the current gender-neutral housing program has only been approved for one year, officials are planning to put together a plan to assess the program's success and then provide a recommendation on its future at OU.

The assessment plan will consist of quarterly focus groups with the GNH students. In addition, all students will fill out the Residential Satisfaction survey in June, and a smaller version of that survey will be given to the GNH community after winter quarter. Residential Housing will compare the results from the GNH community with the greater student body.

"So far there have been zero problems. It's a great community, and everyone is bonding really well just like any other community," Shaw said.

Piercy and Sheets said that group involvement has been noticeably higher when compared to other communities in the dorms. Participants are engaged in activities and discussions and exhibit an above-average cohesiveness.

Although the GNH program is for upper-class students, Residential Housing staff already have had first-year students ask to join. "Our full intent is to continue to support the program, and we'd love to see it grow," Sheets said.

People can still join the GNH community throughout the year. Anyone interested in doing so should fill out an application through Residential Housing. Sheets said she has enjoyed reviewing the applications so far and hearing the heart-felt concerns from students. "The application process has been enlightening for me," she said.

OU IS THE 56^TH SCHOOL in the nation to implement a gender-neutral housing program. "We're cutting edge with this," said Piercy.

There has been a lot of interest from other schools, she added, and OU staff will be presenting GNH information at two regional conferences. Piercy said there is great value in this program because "it provides service to our school and our profession."

Residential Housing offers four other specialized living communities for OU students: Substance Free, International, Quiet Study and Residential Learning. For more information on the gender neutral community or any of the other living communities, visit www.ohio.edu/housing.

The NEWSattempted to speak to some of the participating students, but their resident assistant, speaking for them, said they weren't interested in speaking to the news media.