Smith said.
Next year, Ohio University will allow male and female students to live together in residence hall rooms as part of a pilot program.
A one-year trial period for gender-neutral housing will begin during the 2011-12 academic year, said Vice President for Student Affairs Kent Smith. The trial will be open mainly to upperclassmen living in the residence hall, but freshmen will also be allowed to apply for gender-neutral housing through special request.
We have substance free and 24/7 quiet residence halls; this is just one more option Smith said.
Although the application process won't specifically forbid couples trying to live together, Student Senate LGBT Affairs Commissioner Sean Martin said it will be frowned upon.
Administrators and student senators said they do not expect problems to arise.
With the wording (of the application) we don't encourage those who are in a dating relationship to apply (to live together)
Smith said, The average student will adhere to it...some may not; it's a possibility.
Martin and LGBT Affairs Vice Commissioner Amelia Shaw spearheaded efforts to allow gender-neutral housing. Student Senate passed a proposal in October outlining the pilot and formally announced that OU will offer gender-neutral housing at its meeting last night.
It shows the administration is willing to listen to students
Shaw said. It gets past the myth that students have no voice.
Senate conducted an opinion poll last quarter about housing. Of 1,176 students who responded, 1,026 - or 87.2 percent - approved of the new housing option, Martin said.
OU is not the only university in Ohio to experiment with gender-neutral housing. Miami University and Denison University are currently operating similar pilot programs, Smith said. Wright State University is also considering gender-neutral housing.
During OU's pilot program, 50 beds will be available in either Smith House, MacKinnon Hall or Treudley Hall, said Christine Sheets, executive director of Residential Housing.
Costs associated with the new housing option are unknown, but Sheets said she anticipates they would be minimal. Costs could include some modest modifications to the residence hall floors, as well as some specialized programs, she said. However, no exact modifications have been finalized.
Mickey Hart, director of OU's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Center, praised the move. Gender-neutral housing would particularly benefit students identifying as transgender, he said.
Hart said he did not know how many people would be interested in gender-neutral housing but that OU will see great demand.
I've gotten the sense they'll be overwhelmed by interested students - if not in the first year
then in subsequent years
he said.
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Tristan Navera
