84 students choose co-ed dorm rooms for next year

Eighty-four of the approximately 5,400 students living on campus next year have been assigned to co-ed rooms.

Penn's "gender-neutral" housing policy, adopted in early December, was implemented for the first time in the recent undergraduate room-selection process.

"I would term [the implementation] as very smooth in terms of room assignments; it didn't seem to present any real issues," Faculty Director of College Houses and Academic Services Phil Nichols said. "Of course, we haven't actually had people living in the rooms" yet.

The concept of gender-neutral housing has been seriously debated on Penn's campus since early 2003, when Civic House Associate Coalition co-Chairman and College senior Bradley Breuer asked Housing and Conference Services if he could live with a female friend.

Proponents of gender-neutral housing see the policy partly as a way to address the fact that gay students may feel more comfortable living with students of the opposite gender and that trans-gender students may feel uncomfortable with the system usually used to assign students housing.

Supporters of the policy have also characterized it as a way for on-campus housing to mirror the way many students choose to live if they move off campus.

Many of the students who chose to take advantage of the new policy said they did so because they wanted to live with their friends, whatever gender they happened to be.

"I already found my group of close friends when I got here, and it was basically these guys," said College freshman Lisa Phuong, who will be living with three male students next year.

Wharton freshman Talena Liu, who will be living with three male students as well, expressed similar sentiments and said that she has very few concerns about her living arrangement next year.

"I was talking to my dad about it, and his only concern was that I might have to toilet-train the guys," Liu said. "They seem clean; they'll put the seat down and stuff, and that's all I'm asking for."

Breuer said that while he is happy that the policy was put into effect and that students are showing interest in it, he still has significant reservations about how the policy was publicized and implemented.

"I think it's a shame that Housing did not make [the gender-neutral housing policy] a centerpiece of its publicity this year," he said. "Last I checked, it's not part of their official Web site or literature. I'm not saying, 'go reprint all the brochures and put a banner on Locust Walk,' but at least put it on the Web site."

Many students who are living in gender-neutral housing next year said they heard about the option either by word of mouth or from The Daily Pennsylvanian. Some students voiced frustration about the lack of information regarding the new policy.

"Penn isn't making it any easier" for people live in gender-neutral housing, said College and Engineering freshman Owen Douglas, who will be living with two male students and one female student next year. "They are actually making it difficult. It's not on any of the Web sites, so you have to rely on people who may or may not be well-informed."

While Nichols said he believed the policy was on the Housing Web site, he could not specify exactly where it was.

Breuer said that he was opposed to the fact that to apply for gender-neutral housing, students had to go to the Housing and Conference Services office in person and sign a contract agreeing to live in a co-ed setting.

"It's creating a separate process for people who want to live in a co-educational setting," Breuer said.

Most students said, though, that the application process was relatively simple.

"Oh my God, it was so easy," Liu said. "We just signed the forms and consented to live with each other, and that was it."

According to Nichols, students who wish to live in co-ed rooms cannot apply online because the Housing computer system is designed to assign rooms by gender. Nichols said that the special requirements for gender-neutral housing are "additional things" and do not constitute a separate process.

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