Spring Break
Residence life postpones gender-neutral housing
by Lital Shair
News | 9/9/08
Posted online at 4:48 AM EST on 9/9/08
It is "very likely" that there will be some form of gender-neutral housing at Brandeis next fall, according to Residence Life's Associate Director for Operations and Assignments Jeremy Leiferman.
Last March, former Director of Residence Life Rich DeCapua stated that the Department of Residence Life aimed to implement a gender-neutral housing policy, which would allow for mixed-gender rooms after the first two weeks of the fall semester, which would have started this past Monday Sept. 8, the day the housing freeze ended. However, Leiferman said that after the housing freeze, a two-week period at the beginning of the year during which students cannot switch rooms, students will still not be able to switch into mixed-gender rooms.
According to Leiferman, ResLife still needs to look at all aspects of this policy, including floor designations, room designations, bathrooms and the structures of the buildings, before it can draft a policy.
Since Brandeis already allows for mixed-gender suites, the policy's "focus will be on our corridor-style areas, so places like the Village and East, I think, will be the likely targets for implementation," said Leiferman.
ResLife has not yet determined what gender-neutral housing will specifically be like, but it will most likely not be open to first-year students, Leiferman continued.
"Brandeis has a unique mixed interest because there's as much interest in gender-neutral housing as there is in maintaining single-gender housing. In the last few years, we've actually added more single-gender floors at the request of students," said Leiferman, who added that ResLife aims to make students as comfortable as possible with regard to housing.
This year, according to Leiferman, ResLife will work on educating the Brandeis community about gender-neutral housing. "At this point, we are at a place where we need to spend some time doing some education with the community … so that everyone kind of has a really good understanding of what the issues are, what the needs are, why this needs to happen," he said.
Last March, former Director of Residence Life Rich DeCapua stated that the Department of Residence Life aimed to implement a gender-neutral housing policy, which would allow for mixed-gender rooms after the first two weeks of the fall semester, which would have started this past Monday Sept. 8, the day the housing freeze ended. However, Leiferman said that after the housing freeze, a two-week period at the beginning of the year during which students cannot switch rooms, students will still not be able to switch into mixed-gender rooms.
According to Leiferman, ResLife still needs to look at all aspects of this policy, including floor designations, room designations, bathrooms and the structures of the buildings, before it can draft a policy.
Since Brandeis already allows for mixed-gender suites, the policy's "focus will be on our corridor-style areas, so places like the Village and East, I think, will be the likely targets for implementation," said Leiferman.
ResLife has not yet determined what gender-neutral housing will specifically be like, but it will most likely not be open to first-year students, Leiferman continued.
"Brandeis has a unique mixed interest because there's as much interest in gender-neutral housing as there is in maintaining single-gender housing. In the last few years, we've actually added more single-gender floors at the request of students," said Leiferman, who added that ResLife aims to make students as comfortable as possible with regard to housing.
This year, according to Leiferman, ResLife will work on educating the Brandeis community about gender-neutral housing. "At this point, we are at a place where we need to spend some time doing some education with the community … so that everyone kind of has a really good understanding of what the issues are, what the needs are, why this needs to happen," he said.
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