Staying, sleeping and showering in a coed cabin with three other women and a man didn’t faze Boston University sophomore Celie Hart when she went on a student-employee retreat last weekend.
“Honestly, my biggest worry was the snoring,” Hart, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said. “I wasn’t worried about living with guys. It was actually perfectly fine.”
Though sex-segregated housing is not the policy at BU’s Sargent Camp in New Hampshire, and colleges across the country are changing their rooming rules, the gender policy for Charles River Campus housing is not set to change any time soon, BU Housing Director Marc Robillard said.
The administration is not officially discussing gender-neutral housing at this time, but officials could be swayed by student pressure, Robillard said.
“It’s something the university will have to look into eventually,” he said. “Students will request it.”
Students persuaded Dartmouth College to reconsider its housing system and offer gender-neutral options in all its dormitories beginning last fall.
“We’ve gotten a very positive reaction,” Dartmouth Senior Associate Dean Dan Nelson said. “In some instances it’s all men or women, and in some it’s mixed.”
Dartmouth students in off-campus housing have been living in gender-neutral settings for decades, he said.
Brown University will implement gender-neutral housing options in all dormitories starting next fall, Brown Senior Associate Dean Richard Bova said. A group comprised of students, faculty and staff discussed the issue for a year before it was approved by the administration.
“It’s about empowering yourself,” Bova said. “If you choose to mix gender, you do. If not, no problem.”
BU students offered mixed reviews on mixing genders.
Hart said privacy was not an issue during the weekend at Sargent Camp, and she wouldn’t expect trouble to arise with unisex on-campus housing.
“I think the guy in my room was sensitive to the girls’ changing, so it wasn’t a problem,” Hart said. “I would be in full support of the option [at BU]. It should never be mandatory, but I would be glad to see it at BU.”
College of Engineering junior Paolo Belfiore said with each gender, “There are different necessities.”
“You can’t do it. Guys are different than girls when it comes to [living] . . . different habits and things,” he said. “With a girl, I feel like I’d always be watched, or she might think I’m watching her. It would be weird.”
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Gabby Velasquez said she would be concerned about possible romantic issues with mixed-gender housing.
“If couples live together, it would be a bad thing if they broke up,” Velasquez said. “It would be a mess . . . I don’t think it’s a great idea.”
CAS sophomore Peter Parpos, who went to Sargent Camp, said campers felt pressured to be polite and act in certain ways around the opposite sex.
“I didn’t like it because I felt like I had to be on my best behavior,” Parpos said. “In large dorms, it might get annoying, but it would work out.”
For now, BU’s gender-divided housing system works just fine for the school’s situation, university spokesman Colin Riley said.
“We are aware of what other schools do, but this is what works best at BU,” Riley said, adding BU’s urban location is a resource for students, who can make their own choices. “There is nothing to prevent students from moving off-campus. You have the option you may not have on a closed campus.”