Email from Clark...
help me formulate a response to the below highlighted line and the following paragraph(first years are second class citizens, gosh i'm so sensitive)-
Dear Anna:
You may have heard about Clark's decision to offer gender blind/neutral
housing to undergraduate students beginning in Fall 2007. This topic may arise
when you speak with prospective students and their families. I'd like to take
this opportunity to tell you more about this decision.
Gender blind/neutral housing is a housing option that has no
restrictions about the gender of roommates. This means that a male student and a female
student can jointly choose to live together in a double room. Under this plan,
different sexed roommates are never randomly assigned. Now, like any
roommate request, Clark's Residential Life and Housing Office will only honor
requests made by both parties mutually. Gender neutral housing will be offered
side by side to traditional housing in mixed class halls. This option is not
available to first-year students.
This housing choice provides options for transgender students in the
process of discovering their gender identity, gay or bisexual students, students
who feel uncomfortable rooming with members of the same sex, intersexed students
who do not wish to be identified by any sex, and students who feel they would
be more compatible with a roommate of a different gender. This policy helps
create an environment that acknowledges, appreciates and respects the diverse
nature of the Clark student body, while giving students more options in finding a
roommate who is truly compatible.
Technically, under this policy, male and female couples would be able
to live together. It is important to note that in colleges that were
researched, straight couples electing to live in gender neutral housing were rare;
the fact is that couples (gay or straight) know the difficulties of living
together and seldom elect to do so.
The proposal for gender blind/neutral housing was submitted in Spring
2006 by two undergraduate students. It has been discussed in a campus-wide Town
Meeting, at Senior Leadership, and by the Board of Trustees at the
April 2006 Board meeting. The Board's Student Affairs Committee also held an open
session for all Trustees on November 30; that discussion was supportive of this
decision and was taken into account by Senior Leadership in making the
final decision.
More and more schools are embracing gender blind/neutral housing
policies. Schools that currently allow gender blind/neutral living arrangements
include:Bennington, Brown, Colorado College, University of
California/Riverside,Guilford, Hampshire, Haverford, Humboldt State University, Lewis and
Clark,Lawrence University, Oberlin, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence, Swarthmore, University of Southern Maine
and Wesleyan.
I hope this clarifies this housing option for you and shows that it is
being put in place after thoughtful deliberation in order to best meet the
needs of our diverse student body. If you have other questions, please contact
the Dean of Students Office at 508-793-7423.
Warm Regards,
Judy Earls
This email was sent to:a_k_schwartz@yahoo.com