Without gender-neutral housing, Yale discriminates
Without gender-neutral housing, Yale discriminates
Friday, September 26, 2008
Our suite, if Ezra Stiles College had suites, could be on the cover of any brochure about residential life at Yale. We come from four countries on three continents and represent the diversity upon which Yale prides itself; our academic interests are similarly varied. We are leaders and members of cultural, political, and artistic organizations. We stay up late to watch movies or listen to music together, telling stories until all hours of the night. Like most suitemates at Yale, we are friends.
Of course, we live in Stiles, so we do not live in a suite, but instead are scattered in singles and doubles across different entryways in our college. Because of our busy schedules, we do not get to see each other as much as we like. We do, however, like to talk about how much easier it would be to see each other if we lived in the same suite. If we shared a space we would not have to coordinate lunches together or call each other on weekend nights to see what the others are doing. Though we have different habits and tastes, we are close enough to compromise on nearly anything, from music to decoration. Our hypothetical suite, furnished with hand-me-down futons, Urban Outfitters pillows, and vintage movie posters on the walls, would look much like any other at Yale, though perhaps with fewer right angles.
Unfortunately, even if we were in another college we would not be allowed to live together, because two of us have internal genitalia, and four of us have external organs. Yale has deemed this small anatomical difference grounds to keep us in separate living spaces for four years. We can share meals, bathrooms, even beds, as long as we are officially listed in different rooms. We are not, however, looking to have sex with each other, nor cause mayhem. We simply want to live with our friends, and for this reason we ask for gender-neutral housing.
Much of the dialogue about gender-neutral housing has centered on the need to welcome transgender students, and this is certainly an important task. Gender-neutral housing is not, however, only for this small minority. Housing should be gender-neutral so that all of us have the option to live with whomever we choose, regardless of their sex. The arguments of those who have opposed gender-neutral housing have been refuted numerous times by others, but in the end Yale’s sluggishness to embrace gender-neutral housing has simply perpetuated the divide between women and men. How are we to come to respect each other when we cannot live together?
Many of Yale’s peer institutions have embraced gender-neutral housing since 2003, leaving Yale looking more and more backwards. Yale also changed its non-discrimination policy to include “gender identity or expression” in 2006, yet two years later students who pay $11,000 a year are still restricted in their choice of suitemates. There has been some progress, however; an ad hoc committee of administrators was formed last year to investigate the possibility of gender-neutral housing, but it is unlikely to go forward if the Council of Masters rejects the proposal, as it rejected Edward Chang’s ’10 proposal last November.
Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske said last April that he was “not sure” if “there is a need” for gender-neutral housing, and much of the debate the matter has questioned whether such drastic changes to Yale’s housing policy should be made for such a small transgender minority, if it exists at all.
While Yale should introduce gender-neutral housing in order to uphold its non-discrimination policy, no matter the number of students affected, there is clearly a need in the larger community. The six of us, and countless other students, feel we need gender-neutral housing not only to live with our friends, but also to move towards a community free of outmoded ideas of sex and gender.
We call upon the Council of Master to encourage the administration to adopt gender-neutral housing policies, both to end the discrimination against transgender students and to give greater freedom to all students in choosing their suitemates.
Gender-neutral housing is for all of us.
Ryan Caro, Taylour Chang, Ian Convey, Geoffry Liu, Molly Silverstein and Daniel Suarez are sophomores in Ezra Stiles College.
Comments
None 3 years, 7 months ago
Agree with #9.
As for other colleges: if you are such a slouch that you cannot engineer some path around the rules, well, you don't DESERVE to get what you want.
Kind of the normal Liberal trajectory: "I am too dumb/lazy/mediocre to get what I want via skill, so I'd better agitate!"
None 3 years, 7 months ago
10
-As I see it, it's not a matter of wanting to see friends more, this is clearly an attempt to actually make a difference in how Yale views housing and what are appropriate living situations. Why do you consider this dumb/lazy/mediocre agitation? Is it so idiotic to want something like this to be institutionally accepted as opposed to something you engineer a path to?
Needless to say, I agree
None 3 years, 8 months ago
Ezra Stiles does do mixed suites--you just have to be an upperclassman to get them. Better luck next year
None 3 years, 8 months ago
On the contrary, most people that I know who've expressed interest in gender neutral housing have not had living with a s.o. in mind. Besides, what's the university doing to prevent similar blowups from happening to gay couples? Or, for that matter, mere friends who have a falling out?
One of the things you learn at university is how to live with others for long periods of time, and to make things work out even when you have interpersonal problems. Otherwise we might as well all have singles.
I don't see why the university is unwilling to extend that life lesson to include living with the opposite sex. Many of us are going to end up doing that at some point anyway; why not let us start learning how to do that now?
None 3 years, 8 months ago
really? that's a reason not to let friends share suites?! like everyone does already off campus?! the worse thing that could happen is sharing a double, then having to move one of the beds into the common room. ahhh.
None 3 years, 8 months ago
And so we should stop groups of friends from living together just because couples might decide to live together and break up? And what about students whose gender identity or sexual orientation doesn't fit into the neat and simple categories that ages of social conditioning have provided?
Is it even Yale's job to protect its students from that kind of potentially unwise decision? I don't think so. I would rather be at an institution that provides people the freedom to make their own mistakes, as well as the freedom to live in a comfortable and accepting environment. Isn't the bizarre combination of those two freedoms what a college education is all about?
None 3 years, 8 months ago
If you are really suffering so much because you can't live with your friends, just move off campus next year. The problems created when couples living together break up are very real and shouldn't be glossed over.
"How are we to come to respect each other when we cannot live together?" Are you serious?! Thanks for that one :)
None 3 years, 8 months ago
Right. On.
None 3 years, 8 months ago
Thanks for the article. It's amusing that at this point in time, the administration still deigns to consider it appropriate to tell us who we should live near — no, I won't say with, because like many other juniors, I have a single.
Honestly, the only reason the administration seems to ever give is that two people in a relationship might live together, then break up, and oh no, call in the tanks, and retain Chicken Little as spokesman.
Should the university change for the desires of a "small group" of people? Let's instead put it this way: should the university remain the same, just so a guy and a girl can't make a semster-long mistake? I think I've heard of worse.
This infringes on no one. Want to room with guys? Room with guys. Girls? Same thing. I guess the only other problem is that more people might choose to live on campus, instead of moving with their friends to an apartment ...
None 3 years, 8 months ago
AMEN
None 3 years, 8 months ago
gender neutral housing just means lots of boyfriends/girlfriends living together and then regretting it for MONTHS after they break up.
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