The issue of gender-neutral housing, once a chief concern for our Bowdoin Student Government leaders, has manifested itself in a grassroots movement for change. Seeking to bypass the internal debate and bureaucratic hold ups of attempting a top-down reformation of our housing system, a group of frustrated students has decided to take matters into their own hands.
The group is attempting to galvanize support from various student groups and organizations on campus for the implementation of a gender-neutral housing policy. We're a progressive school.
We like being at the forefront of national movements for equality. But when we stop to consider just what gender-neutral housing means, administratively and socially, we must ask, is it really worth it?
When presented with a petition asking for our support in the movement towards gender-neutral housing options at Bowdoin, most of us wouldn't think twice before signing our names to the cause. But how many of us would really take advantage of the policy change?
Maybe it would be members of the Bowdoin community who identify more strongly with members of their opposite sex? Students who don't feel comfortable with traditional definitions of gender, or maybe those of us who just want to save our roommates the hassle of having to put up with a significant other sleeping over more often then he or she sleeps in his or her own bed? While these concerns are understandable, and gender-neutral housing options could alleviate many of the issues such students are forced to grapple with each April at the housing lottery, there are many options already available to the Bowdoin student body to accommodate these special interests.
Bowdoin's residential policy already allows students to live in coed suites. Furthermore, if there are specific reasons necessitating a situation in which a male student rooms with a female student, ResLife has made it very clear that they try to be accommodating.
The ResLife staff focuses on providing a comfortable residential life experience for all students and isn't going to be knocking on doors to make sure students are actually sleeping in their assigned rooms. And if you're not the type to evade college policy, there are numerous reasonably priced off-campus housing options available in the Brunswick community.
Is it a hassle to have to rent and maintain your own place? Sure, but it's an equally burdensome hassle to ask the College to provide on-campus gender-neutral housing options. If a couple really wanted to live and room together, there are absolutely avenues available for them to do so, sanctioned or unsanctioned.
So even if most people can find ways to circumvent college residential policy and live the way they want to live with the people they want to live with, why should that be grounds for abandoning the push for college sanctioned coed rooming? Why should we have to ask to be an exception to the rule? The truth is, there are a number of practical issues preventing a college-wide implementation of gender-neutral housing. ResLife already has its hands full trying to efficiently manage the demands for different types of housing of it's currently all single-sex bedrooms.
With many students only studying at Bowdoin for a single semester and others leaving school for family, career or personal reasons mid-year, the ResLife staff is faced with the difficult task of filling nearly every available bed on campus in spite of an ever-changing student population.
There are already numerous cases of unhappy or untenable living situations without the added complication of gender. How many of us would feel comfortable rooming with someone we had never met before, let alone a stranger of the opposite sex—which could happen if the College were to implement gender-neutral housing?
If living with members of an opposite sex is as important to Bowdoin students as some seem to make it out to be, I want to know how many students would actually want to do so. Is gender-neutral housing a necessity or a desire? Are we going to push for a college-wide housing change with widespread implications on the basis of principles or on the basis of need? I'm all ears, Bowdoin.
Craig Hardt is a member of the Class of 2012.