Every student has experienced or has heard some kind of horror story about random roommate selection: thefts, lack of personal space and frequent "sexiles." The college housing experience can be miserable if you haven't found somebody of the same sex you want to share your living space with.
UB provided a solution this fall: gender-neutral housing.
Starting this semester, two floors in the Ellicott Complex and several apartments in the Hadley and Creekside Villages, have been set aside for gender-neutral housing.
Not only should the university have begun this sooner, they should further expand it and other schools should follow suit.
The decision allows college students who are closer with friends of the opposite sex, or students who don't like the option of being thrown together with a random stranger, to live with someone they're actually comfortable with - despite that person's gender. In addition, it benefits the LGBTQ community, providing a safer and more at-ease living situation than what you would get with random selection.
It seems like such an obvious choice.
But UB is only the first school in Western New York to allow this living option (SUNY Geneseo - which is located outside of Rochester - does as well). According to the Transgender Law & Policy Institute, at least 88 other colleges and universities in the U.S. have signed on.
The university has taken a step up and said, "These students are adults and should be treated as such. They're perfectly capable of making the decision of who they want to live with, so let's let them."
The new housing option has many parents nervously wringing their hands, though. After all, how will two adults of different sex possibly share a living space for a few hours a day without having sex with each other?
UB ignored such a condescending attitude and the move wasn't made with the intention to promote couple's housing; it was made to make students feel more comfortable and safer - a step that should already be a goal for university housing.
If college is supposed to be the gateway into "the real world," then shouldn't students be able to make decisions about whom they are going to live with without having their hands held by the system?
If it doesn't work, then at the very least students learn what they are mature enough to deal with and can move on from there. That's for them to figure out, though, on their own - as adults.
UB Campus Living's decision is applaudable, and it's good to see a choice made that puts students first. People should be comfortable with who they're living with. There's no reason gender should make any difference in that fact.
Email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
