Gender-neutral housing expands to 278 spots

Given the growing number of students interested in gender-neutral housing, Associate Director for Student Housing Lisa DePaul said in an email that the expansion was “timely.” The decision was based on student input in the form of written submissions, meetings with student government representatives and findings from last December’s Undergraduate Housing Demand Survey.

“For the past few years we have worked closely with the Undergraduate Life Committee, the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students on the possibility of offering gender-neutral housing,” DePaul said.

Nine gender-neutral units were first introduced in the Spelman dormitories for upperclassmen two years ago as part of a pilot program.

“Now they’re going to make it permanent,” USG Undergraduate Life Committee chair Adi Rajagopalan ’13 said. Rajagopalan worked closely with the University administration to oversee the expansion. “Housing wanted a few years to evaluate the program,” he explained, adding that the Princeton Equality Project’s petitioning last fall helped add a lot of student support.

“It’s amazing how quickly it came together,” he said. “During my time with the ULC, it’s one of the top things a lot of people wanted and worked on. It’s very cool to see, a win for a lot of people.”

Emily VanderLinden ’13, the project manager of PEP’s petition, said in an email that the group was “very happy” with the University’s decision. PEP’s petition received over 1,000 signatures last November and December through tabling at Frist and online distribution.

“We worked hard for expansion beyond Spelman because it is pretty specific housing,” VanderLinden said. “The majority of the roommates need to be independent; it is all on one side of campus; there is only one type of room with four roommates.”

In 2011-12, 14 groups with a total of 56 students applied for gender-neutral housing. Of these, two groups were not placed into gender-neutral Housing because of unfavorable housing lottery times, according to DePaul. Any group of students seeking gender-neutral housing will now be able to select from the rooms available during their draw time, she said.

PEP President Lelabari Giwa-Ojuri ’14 said that these developments were very recent and that the University has not made any public announcements. She said that extensive floor plans for gender-neutral housing are expected to be available on the housing website when room draw launches this spring.

Giwa-Ojuri and VanderLinden said that they did not have an estimate for how many students are likely to be interested in pursuing gender-neutral housing under the new program. Rajagopalan said that it was “tricky” to estimate how many gender-neutral groups would sign up for housing.

“The rooms are also part of regular room draw, so there’s a possibility that a group that isn’t gender neutral could still fill up a GNH housing room,” he said. “Part of the intended expansion is to add a lot of rooms. You want some extra capacity since it’s part of regular room draw.”

“Even if a minority of students take advantage of GNH, the important aspect of the policy is having all students be able to choose whatever room with whatever roommate they want,” VanderLinden said. “Putting that responsibility in the hands of intelligent adults shows the University’s respect for our community.”

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DePaul declined to comment on how the University’s new policy compares to those of its peers, saying that she was not in a position to “speak to the gender-neutral housing policies of other institutions.”

PEP will continue to work to expand housing options so that all students can have “equal access to safe and comfortable gender-neutral living arrangements,” VanderLinden said.

“It’s a big step to happen at Princeton,” Rajagopalan said. “We’ll keep looking at the program and evaluating if it’s enough, or if people want more.”