Category | News

University of Chicago introduces ‘open housing’

Published on January 13, 2009 by The Sentinel

    The University of Chicago, proud home of Nobel laureates, will undertake a bold experiment in chemistry: coed dorm rooms.

    The pilot program allowing male and female students to sleep in the same room will start next month. It’s not intended for romantic couples, but they won’t be excluded because the university won’t ask students why they want to live together.

    The proposal was a student-led initiative, university officials said.

    Coed dorm rooms are allowed at more than 30 campuses nationwide, but they have generally been socially liberal institutions, such as Wesleyan University, Oberlin College and Oregon State University. The policy is a departure at the U. of C., which has a no-nonsense, nose-in-a-book reputation.

    The program won’t apply to freshmen, and students won’t need permission from their parents to live in “open housing.” A letter announcing the program went out to parents this week.

    “In today’s day and age it’s not really fair to discriminate based on gender anymore,” said Asha Woodall, 19, a sophomore at the U. of C. and a supporter of the plan. “Sexuality is more of a spectrum.”

    Notions about sexuality and personal choice helped propel the program. In the university’s letter to parents, the director of undergraduate housing said the gender-neutral plan “allows us to meet the needs of students for whom traditional, same-sex room assignments are not ideal.”

    Josh Gana, assistant director for operations and facilities with university housing at Oregon State University, said their “gender inclusives” program has been a great success. Introduced in the fall of 2007, Gana said they have more than doubled the number of mixed-gender arrangements this year.

    “It’s a way to accommodate diverse lifestyles,” he said. “It’s what students are demanding more and more.”

    To be sure, not every student likes the idea, and university officials are quick to point out that students will not be assigned to mixed-gender housing.

    “Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable,” said Anna Tenuta, a 19-year-old freshman at the U. of C. “Changing, and personal things in your bedroom — I would feel more comfortable having another woman.”

    Still, Tenuta said she supported letting other students make their own choice.

    Plenty of college officials have yet to embrace the concept. Some critics say the arrangement encourages promiscuity and caters to a politically correct handbook.

    Northwestern University, for one, does not allow men and women to share dorm rooms. At Tufts University in Medford, Mass., a Boston suburb, coed suites are fine but officials have rejected the idea of coed dorm rooms.

    Bruce Reitman, dean of student affairs at Tufts, told The Boston Globe this spring that the concept raised practical and moral concerns.

    Alexandra Markiewicz, a 19-year-old sophomore at the U. of C., said the idea isn’t necessarily a racy one. Two of her close friends, platonic friends of the opposite sex, would simply make great roommates. The pair hope to take advantage of the new rule at some point, Markiewicz said.

    D.J. Zissen, a 20-year-old junior at Oregon State University, is spending his second year in a residence hall that includes gender-inclusive rooms. Last year, he said his neighbor was transgender going through the process of sex reassignment and hormone therapy. No one batted an eye, Zissen said.

    “I enjoy that it’s letting us live with whomever we want,” he said.