USC approves gender-neutral housing
USC has officially announced their decision to offer gender neutral housing for students both on and off campus, effective fall 2015.
Last spring, a group of students joined forces with the Queer and Ally Student Assembly and Undergraduate Student Government to pass a resolution proposing this idea, which was later approved by the university in August 2015. The negotiation began in the fall of 2013 and has been led solely by students, especially those involved in the queer community.
This spring, USC has offered a gender-neutral housing option on the online housing application. Students who select this option will be placed in a pool with others who wish to live in gender-neutral housing.
Freshmen students who opt in will also have the option to choose from on or off campus housing. Those who decide to live on campus will be placed in Arts and Humanities Residential College at Parkside. Students who choose to live off campus will be placed, along with transfer and continuing students who request gender-neutral housing, in Cardinal Gardens, the Rainbow Floor in Century Apartments or the Annenberg House.
The idea for gender-neutral housing first started after a group of students from QuASA realized how this was a priority for the queer community. The decision to implement gender-neutral housing was heavily dependent on the strong network of LGBTQ students.
Alyssa Coffey, director of QuASA, explained that previously, many students were forced to live off campus to accommodate their desire to live in a gender-neutral space.
“A lot of students had to resort to living off campus because they were not comfortable with gender-exclusive housing, which was the only option USC offered until now,” Coffey said.
Sarah Herald, co-president of the Transgender Advocacy Group, explained that she had to resort to non-USC housing because she and her friends could not find what they were looking for through USC housing.
“Had gender-neutral housing existed in that time period when I was looking for housing, then that would have been very helpful to me,” Herald said. “And there are people I certainly know in this kind of predicament.”
Gender-neutral housing hopes to alleviate this problem for students who are currently experiencing transitions with establishing their gender identity.
“Gender-neutral housing is taking what exists in USC housing to accommodate students who are not comfortable in gender- segregated housing,” Coffey said.
Currently, students who would like to live in gender-neutral housing can apply to the Rainbow Floor or the LGBTQ floor in Century Apartments off campus.
Coffey explained that residential assistants will be specially equipped to handle all matters surrounding gender- neutral housing.
“Resident assistants that will be placed in floors with these students will be specially selected,” Coffey said. “They want to make sure that the RAs are able to handle the roommate arrangements and problems that come with gender-neutral housing.”
However, this limited option proved to be difficult for those students if their roommates did not identify themselves as LGBTQ.
“When we were considering USC housing for junior year, we did technically have an option,” Harold said. “But then my roommates who do not identify with LGBTQ would’ve been dragged there to live with me.”
Herald explained how one of the main concerns when passing the resolution was whether or not they could garner enough interest.
“It is very hard to target incoming students, and it might not be clear on the housing application,” Harold said.
Kelby Harrison, the director of the LGBT Resource Center at USC, explained that the application has already been opened for returning students and that they have seen a significant number of people interested.
“Having this resource available makes sure that the Trojan family actually includes all of us, and not a select group of people,” Coffey said.