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New gender neutral housing option
Officers - President's Page
Written by Connor Diemand-Yauman   
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 17:28
Dear students,

Over the past several months, the USG's Undergraduate Life Council has been
discussing the idea of implementing a gender neutral housing option for
undergraduates. I'm happy to report that upon reviewing the formal
recommendation to implement a gender neutral housing pilot program in the
Spelman lottery, the Council of Masters (comprised of the masters of each
residential college) and Vice President Dickerson have endorsed this
proposal, and it will be implemented in the next academic year.

This new option in the Spelman draw for the 2010-2011 academic year will
feature the following:

·         Suites in the Spelman Hall housing lottery would be designated as
GNH. Unlike in other current housing options, these spaces would be
co-educational, thus permitting male, female and transgender students to not
only be in the same draw group, but live together in GNH suites.

·         All students in this room type would have their own individual,
private sleeping spaces and would share a common living area and bathroom;
the suite would be, however, accessible by an exterior key.

·         Eligible students would select this room type through the
independent room draw process in accordance with standard room draw
procedures. No preference would be given to gender neutral groups—the gender
requirement would simply be removed from the Spelman rooms while the
independent requirement would remain in place.

By introducing the Gender Neutral housing in this manner—using Spelman Hall
as a pilot program—we will allow the Housing Office, the Undergraduate Life
Committee, the USG, and other interested bodies to study the outcome of the
first year of a gender neutral housing policy.

By comparing Spelman's gender neutral housing policy with the same-gender
roommate system in other buildings, and broadly soliciting student input
about the strengths and weaknesses of the system, it will be possible to
evaluate the success of the program, as well as whether it should be
continued and/or expanded in future.

A very special thank you to Arthur Levy '10 (ULC chair), Emily Rutherford
'12, Gary Wang '12, the ULC, and all the students and administrators who
contributed to this initiative.

Sincerely,
-Connor DY
 
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