Authors of gender-neutral housing proposal address errors in The Wire, Issue 9
Issue date: 11/18/09 Section: Commentary
After last week's Wire front-page article on gender-neutral rooming at Wheaton, we, the authors of the Proposal to Allow Gender-Neutral Rooming, felt it was important to publicly clarify several facts. We would also like to take this opportunity to give the campus community a little bit more insight into why we believe gender-neutral rooming is an important option for students to have.
The reason that our proposal has advanced to the implementation stage is because Dean of Students, Lee Williams, approved it. The article erroneously states that our proposal will be implemented because the Student Government Association (SGA) passed it and "the necessary faculty" approved of it. We would like to acknowledge, though, that SGA has been extremely supportive of our proposal from the beginning. SGA unanimously voted to support the proposal in the spring, and last week, it voted to endorse the approved proposal.
While current housing practices limit students' rooming options on the basis of gender, allowing gender-neutral rooming will give students the ability to determine how gender does or does not factor into their rooming preferences. Our new housing policy reflects Wheaton's commitment to being an inclusive living and learning environment and our Core Values of being "rooted in tradition, growing into the future," and being a community that is "committed to gender equality."
We do not believe that students should have to choose between living in the type of housing that they would like and being in the rooming situation with which they are most comfortable or prefer, which is why gender-neutral housing will soon be a campus-wide option at Wheaton (excluding the same-sex dorms/halls).
Under the new policy, sophomores, juniors, and seniors will continue to be able to choose the person with whom they wish to room, but gender will no longer be a limiting factor. Information on gender-neutral rooming will be included in the mailings sent out to first-year and transfer students during the room selection process, which will invite them to express their preference for a gender-neutral room on their housing questionnaire. Students will not be required to justify or explain their roommate preferences. This means that students who are transgender, intersex, or otherwise do not identify within the gender binary, will no longer have to decide between concealing their identity or "out-ing" themselves in order to have a rooming situation with which they are comfortable.
The reason that our proposal has advanced to the implementation stage is because Dean of Students, Lee Williams, approved it. The article erroneously states that our proposal will be implemented because the Student Government Association (SGA) passed it and "the necessary faculty" approved of it. We would like to acknowledge, though, that SGA has been extremely supportive of our proposal from the beginning. SGA unanimously voted to support the proposal in the spring, and last week, it voted to endorse the approved proposal.
While current housing practices limit students' rooming options on the basis of gender, allowing gender-neutral rooming will give students the ability to determine how gender does or does not factor into their rooming preferences. Our new housing policy reflects Wheaton's commitment to being an inclusive living and learning environment and our Core Values of being "rooted in tradition, growing into the future," and being a community that is "committed to gender equality."
We do not believe that students should have to choose between living in the type of housing that they would like and being in the rooming situation with which they are most comfortable or prefer, which is why gender-neutral housing will soon be a campus-wide option at Wheaton (excluding the same-sex dorms/halls).
Under the new policy, sophomores, juniors, and seniors will continue to be able to choose the person with whom they wish to room, but gender will no longer be a limiting factor. Information on gender-neutral rooming will be included in the mailings sent out to first-year and transfer students during the room selection process, which will invite them to express their preference for a gender-neutral room on their housing questionnaire. Students will not be required to justify or explain their roommate preferences. This means that students who are transgender, intersex, or otherwise do not identify within the gender binary, will no longer have to decide between concealing their identity or "out-ing" themselves in order to have a rooming situation with which they are comfortable.
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Russian Wives
posted 3/21/10 @ 3:56 AM EST
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