Boston University students voiced concerns about gender-neutral housing alternatives and the application process as on-campus housing selection continues for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Concerns included students choosing gender-neutral housing to get an earlier selection time, a lack of doubles and single rooms and housing filling up too quickly.
Paige Albright, a freshman in the College of Communication, said she would have selected gender-neutral housing if eligible in an attempt to secure an earlier time slot than most other freshmen.
“I know somebody who did gender neutral housing and they already picked their room and know where they’re going to live next year,” she said.
Albright said students using gender-neutral housing as a way to receive an earlier housing selection time slot speaks to the “fracturedness of the BU housing process.”
“Overall students are having to try and find loopholes or other steps in which they can find a place where they feel comfortable living next year,” Alrbright said.
BU spokesperson Colin Riley said there are “more than 8,500 students” participating in overall room selection, with about 3,000 incoming freshmen and “nearly 12,000 beds” available in “more than 140 student residences.”
“We have quite a variety of spaces and locations and types of housing for students who choose to stay on campus,” he said.
Riley said that all residences are “eligible for gender-neutral housing with the exception of Claflin, Rich and Sleeper Halls in West Campus, the Warren Towers Complex and the Towers on Bay State Road.”
He added that housing accommodations for Living-Learning and Speciality Communities are “not eligible” for gender-neutral housing.
Sofia Gonzalez Irigoyen, a sophomore in COM, said she planned on applying for gender-neutral housing after being placed in a triple.
“I didn’t know it would be so hard to live in very close quarters with two people,” Gonzalez Irigoyen said. “I never experienced that before and a lot of issues came up that I realized I need my own living space or at least somewhere private.”
Gonzalez Irigoyen added that she was applying for gender-neutral housing because she and her prospective roommate “grew up the same culturally.”
“We’re both Hispanics,” Gonzalez Irigoyen said. “We’re both Latinos. We’re really good friends, and we already live in a housing situation where it wouldn’t be too far off to what we wanted to get.”
However, Gonzalez Irigoyen said she was unable to get an apartment-style room after noticing there were more quads and triple dorms.
“The proportions of what they set apart for gender-neutral compared to everyone else did seem a little off in terms of numbers,” Gonzalez Irigoyen said.
Webb Hodges, a freshman in the College of Fine Arts, secured a six person suite at 1019 Commonwealth Avenue through the gender-neutral housing process so he could live with his close friends.
“I didn’t really get that this year because I went random,” Hodges said. “I tried to build that for next year, and so the gender-neutral stuff was just what worked out best.”
