The Boston University Student Government held a town hall meeting with approximately 20 students Thursday night to gauge student interests and complaints regarding gender-neutral housing on campus.
The SG Committee of Social Affairs led the meeting to better understand what students would like to see improved about the gender-neutral housing system, the committee’s director Katie Maningas said before the event.
“Gender-neutral housing was established as a safe space for students, not just trans[gender] students, but all students who want to live with people who they are comfortable with,” the College of Arts and Sciences junior said.
The goal of the meeting was to get concrete opinions for a letter of grievances that the committee will later send to Director of Residence Life David Zamojski, Maningas added.
Through the letter, Maningas said, the committee will not only list students’ demands, but also work with BU Residence Life and the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism to foster changes.
“I personally don’t think it would be that hard of a thing to change; it’s just figuring out and working with administration,” Maningas said.
The gender-neutral housing system at BU is set up the same way as regular housing, and it comes on a first-come-first-serve basis. As a result, many students who may need gender neutral housing can’t get it, Maningas said.
“The way the system works right now [does] not accommodating the students [whom] it was initially set up to accommodate” Maningas said.
The committee researched the gender neutral housing system at BU and a few other peer universities, then drafted five grievances prior to the meeting. They hoped to acquire more through student comments at the meeting, Maningas said.
The committee would like to see BU define gender and to make the system more transparent, Maningas said during the meeting. The committee would also like to create the possibility for students to request a room be made gender-neutral.
Another top priority of the committee is make gender-neutral housing accessible to all students, including incoming freshmen, who, under the current system, cannot apply for gender-neutral housing, Maningas said.
Maningas said although the town hall meeting is just the beginning of the process of improving gender-natural housing, the committee and students are excited and hopeful about this initiative.
“Hopefully [students] leave the meeting hopeful and excited that this could be a tangible change,” Maningas said.
For students like Sebastian Gallego, a CAS freshman, this event was an eye-opener.
“I just found out at this meeting that freshmen can’t apply for gender-neutral housing, which is a huge problem,” Gallego said. “That should be something that is accessible and easy.”
Paige Gulley, a junior in CAS, said that as a transgender student, it’s really easy to “feel erased and on the sideline.”
“It’s really reassuring and affirming that SG has decided to take a position on this,” Gulley said. “If there is no cap, I don’t see why it wouldn’t make sense to consider every room in housing technically gender-neutral.”
Noelle Ballantine, a freshman in the School of Education, said that even for someone who has no personal stake in gender-neutral housing, the event was informative and necessary.
“I’m not someone who necessarily needs gender-neutral housing, just based on my gender identity and where I lie on the spectrum,” Ballantine said. “But [the issue] is very important.”