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Open the doors to coed dorms

By Itak Moradi

Aug. 26, 2010 10:18 p.m.

The battle of the sexes is back ““ but now it’s for who can win the first shower.

Examining and reconfiguring boundaries between genders will always meet backlash, stir up some strange moral panic and raise pressing questions.

So it’s only appropriate that the topic of gender-neutral rooms in dorms has done just that.

For the past four decades, schools have steadily allowed the sexes to mingle in closer proximity: First came coed buildings, then coed suites and finally coed rooms, a trend now observed across more than 50 campuses nationwide. UCLA now stalls behind six other UCs in reducing restrictions based on gender, and needs to follow suit.

In order to better accomodate student needs, UCLA should provide this option to its student population.

Every student should have the chance for a comfortable and enjoyable experience living on campus. Well, as comfortable as dorming can get.

The mixed-gender rooming option is almost always considered within special interest housing, oriented more toward serving the needs of the LGBT community.

While UCLA does have some special interest housing, most residence buildings are not themed. Simply re-assigning one or two of these buildings to accommodate mixed-gender rooms would be a sufficient and relatively easy plan of action.

At the end of the school year, students have the option of assigning themselves roommates and requesting specific buildings.

Most schools that now implement gender-neutral rooms still have a very small number of students participating, so whoever places requests would almost certainly have them granted.

Many institutions also leave this option to upperclassmen, but first-years should not be excluded, either. Instead, their process should be more thorough, and include an application explaining the request.

Unmarried couples living together is one of the bigger moral and practical concerns of those who oppose coed housing.

While administrations strongly discourage doing so, the request is very infrequent anyway, said Martin Takimoto, director of Residential and Student Service Programs at UC Berkeley.

Even if they are most often geared toward LGBT special interests, mixed-gender dorms can and do carry a blend of identities. Whether a haven for young women who can’t stand perpetual girliness, a stronger and closer community for LGBT students, or a chance for people to live with their best friends, rooming with the opposite gender can create ease of mind for many.

Despite the multitude of reasons, only one exists to explain why the change ever occurs: student initiative.

At UCLA, several groups involved with the Queer Alliance coalition are working with the Facilities Commission of the Undergraduate Students Association Council in hopes of introducing a gender-neutral policy that would include gender-neutral housing.

“We are really looking to push the campaign off this year. … It’s the perfect time to implement a program because renovations are being made to housing,” said Jesus Ceballos, a chairman for La Familia, a Latino queer advocacy group.

A desire already exists on campus to expand living options for students. However, there needs to be more discourse as to why this is even a germane concern.

When same-sex room assignments are the only option, the assumption stands that this is the safest and most comfortable choice for young women and men. This stance has no regard for individual views of sexuality and comfort.

To create an environment that lives up to our standards of equality and acceptance, we have to address that perhaps not all are currently treated with such.

Schools’ approaches to the issue vary extensively. Some don’t mediate gender assignments within rooms ““ students simply submit roommate requests with no further screening ““ while some schools require an interview and application. At other institutions, like Harvard University, gender-neutral housing is offered only to students who identify as transgender.

UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz all accommodate mixed-gender housing within themed housing programs that focus on gender identity issues and community building.

While housing programs that focus on such issues are beneficial in many ways, it seems both easiest and the least intrusive to simply offer mixed-gender housing for all students, which is how Brown University operates.

“Gender-neutral optional housing,” as it is called at Brown, was implemented after years of coordination between students and the administration, said Kelly Garrett, coordinator of the LGBTQ Resource Center at Brown.

“We took interim steps in between, like gender-neutral suites,” Garrett said. “And to my knowledge, we have had no backlash or problems at all.”

A number of institutions will never adopt a gender-neutral dorms approach, for religious or other reasons. UCLA doesn’t need to be included in that number.

As a school that broadcasts diversity as a core value, UCLA’s adoption of gender-neutral dorms is an important step in legitimizing that claim.

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