After finalizing their proposal for gender-neutral housing, Student Union members said they will meet with Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore to discuss student survey results and the next steps for implementing the policy.
School of Management sophomore Caitlin Seele, sub-committee chair, said the sub-committee set plans to meet with Elmore after completing the final proposal.
Union Vice President Alex Staikos said members hope Elmore will endorse the proposal so that he can introduce the plans to other administrators.
“Dean Elmore, for anything we do, is the first step to getting it to everyone else,” Staikos, a SMG sophomore, said. “I think we do have a very solid proposal, way more solid than any other proposal from past years.”
Elmore may have questions about the proposal, but it is unlikely that he would reject it entirely, Staikos said.
Seele is working with Elmore’s secretary to schedule a meeting with him to discuss gender-neutral housing, she said.
“Dean Elmore is knowledgeable of student life and administration and how the two go together,” Seele said. “If he feels that it is great and 100 percent ready to go, then that will really help when we go to [Boston University President Robert] Brown.”
Elmore was noncommittal when discussing the proposal.
“We will get the right people in the room to decide how we will move forward,” Elmore said. “A proposal is in front of me, and I need to get back to Student Union about what the decision is. I don’t know what the decision is right now.”
Union set plans for an open house on April 10 that will focus on the ideas for gender-neutral housing. Interest has been so great that Union needed to find another venue.
The gender-neutral housing sub-committee surveyed 1,282 students and garnered 710 student and faculty signatures endorsing the proposal.
The committee developed a five-step plan with the intention of implementing each step at the beginning of each housing year in late March, Seele said.
The first step will involve testing gender-neutral rooms in suite- and apartment-style residences such as Student Village I and StuVi II, as well as some South Campus apartment-style residences, Seele said. Administration and leaders at Boston-area colleges with gender-neutral housing told the sub-committee the best setting to test the policy would be in suites with an internal bathroom.
The second step in the proposal is to increase the rooms available in the suite and apartment-style locations, Seele said. Resident assistants would be trained as gender-neutral housing spreads to additional residences.
“We will train them on how to be sensitive to gender-neutral concerns and on domestic violence,” Seele said. “It wasn’t a glaring problem at peer schools. If given the option, I personally think that people will go about it responsibly.”
In the third step, gender-neutral housing would become an option in not only StuVi I, Stuvi II and South Campus, but also in East Campus apartment-style residences, including those on Bay State Road.
“Any room that you apply to move into in those buildings could be gender-neutral,” she said.
The fourth step in the proposal states gender-neutral housing would be implemented in Myles Standish Hall, Shelton Hall and 1019 Commonwealth Ave., which would incorporate a younger demographic.
The fifth step is for all residences to offer gender-neutral housing.
After four years of implementing the policy, students and administration would evaluate how gender-neutral housing would work in Warren Towers, The Towers, Claflin Hall, Rich Hall and Sleeper Hall.
“We really want to educate incoming freshmen on the issue,” Seele said. “We would like them to be able to choose their own roommates. We are hesitant about students who have never been at campus requesting a roommate who they do not know well.”
Brown will make the final decision on the proposal.
Seele said she hopes for Brown to endorse the proposal by May so the five-step plan can begin by the spring.
“This isn’t one of those ‘It’s finals time so let’s pick it up in September’ type of issues,” Seele said. “From the support I have heard from administration, I think it is 100 percent possible that it will be implemented in the spring. That is not unreasonable by any means.”
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