ASU offers a full complement of gender-neutral resources, from housing to health care, even down to gender neutral bathrooms on campus. As of this year, ASU's LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index Score is a 4.5. (Photo by Cierra Eubank)
Although ASU is working to improve its gender-neutral accommodations, students remain unaware these options are available.
Gender-neutral accommodations include dorm rooms, bathrooms and locker rooms that can be used by anyone regardless of gender. They can provide safe and comfortable spaces for students who face discrimination on the basis of their gender or sexuality identity or don't identify with conventional gender concepts.
Gender Inclusive Housing
ASU offers a gender-neutral housing option, which it calls Gender Inclusive Housing, and has gender-neutral bathrooms scattered across campus. On the Tempe campus, 44 buildings have gender-neutral bathrooms.
Students wishing to participate in the Gender Inclusive Housing program must contact University Housing by email. After receiving the initial email, Housing contacts the student for more information and then makes “the appropriate accommodation,” according to the University Housing website.
Students first proposed a gender-neutral housing option in March 2011. At the time, students were advocating for either a separate residential community for students desiring gender-neutral housing, or a checkbox on the housing application to indicate desire for gender-neutral roommates.
Gender Inclusive Housing has been available since fall 2011, University Housing Director Kendra Hunter said in an email.
Students still live in their residential colleges in the Gender Inclusive Housing program and all residential colleges have spaces available to serve as gender-neutral accommodations, Hunter said.
She said students requesting Gender Inclusive Housing can choose from the living arrangements available for the residential college.
“When a student requests a Gender Inclusive Housing option, we will also ask that person if they prefer to be in a private room or if they have a roommate preference,” she said. “Because we work individually with the student, we are able to accommodate the room type that the student requests based on their individual preferences within the Residential College or Upperclass Student Facilities.”
Hunter said ASU Housing has been able to accommodate all the requests made for Gender Inclusive Housing. She did not say how many students have been accommodated, but according to information in the Gender Inclusive Housing Action Committee’s proposal, six have made requests and two have followed the process through to a final assignment.
Improving Access
The Gender Inclusive Housing Action Committee was created about a month ago to organize students around ASU’s Gender Inclusive Housing option, co-chairs and Residence Hall Association executive board members Lauren Zack and Christian Sandoval said.
Zack, an English and psychology senior, said there is a good system and intention behind the current option, adding that GIHAC is trying to improve access to the option, rather than change it.
GIHAC’s goal is to change the request system so that students can indicate interest on the housing application, rather than having to reach out to ASU Housing separately, Zack said.
“This is not students vs. Housing,” she said. “We’re very much trying to gather a large student voice so that we can have that conversation.”
Sandoval, a communications senior, said the assignment process for gender-neutral housing shouldn’t require students to make a special request.
“I think it should be an option for anyone,” he said. “It shouldn’t be anything that makes anyone feel like an exclusion or a special case.”
Zack said GIHAC is working closely with Housing to reform the request system.
They want a plan in place with Housing by the end of this school year, but the timeline is hard to predict, because the committee is so new, she said.
Sandoval said he hopes the change will be in place by next fall.
GIHAC has drafted a proposal and is soliciting student comments, especially with regard to inclusiveness of the language, he said.
“The proposal is very much a working draft,” Sandoval said.
Students can get involved with GIHAC by liking its Facebook page and filling out an interest form, Zack and Sandoval said.
Gender Neutrality Elsewhere
The request process is similar to the one at Pennsylvania State University, which also requires students to make an initial request through email.
Housing officials will then work with the student to find the best accommodation, Annemarie Mountz, assistant director of public information for PSU, said in an email.
“The students may contact us to ask for gender-neutral accommodations or select accommodations that meet such needs,” she said. “Some students choose their roommates, while others take the roommate who is placed with them.”
Students have housing options at PSU that are gender-neutral by design, she said.
In 2004, PSU opened an upper-class housing community. The coed community consists of single rooms with private bathrooms, so every room can be considered gender-neutral, Mountz said.
PSU offers gender-neutral bathrooms in all areas of campus as well, she said.
She said the University continues to add more gender-neutral options as it renovates its campus, adding that students and administrators support increased gender neutrality.
Gender Neutrality around Arizona
UA and NAU both offer gender-neutral housing options, and both call their options “gender inclusive.”
UA was the first of Arizona’s state universities to offer a gender-neutral housing option, starting its program in the 2010-11 school year, said Andrea Smiley, UA associate vice president of communications, in an email.
If students note their gender identity on their housing application, UA Residence Life’s Coordinator of Social Justice Education contacts them to determine the best housing assignment for their needs, she said.
Smiley said one of the most popular choices for students requesting gender inclusive housing is Pima Hall’s Social Justice Wing, a living community themed around diversity that can accommodate 14 students.
Only a “handful” of students request gender inclusive roommate pairings, she said, adding that four rooms chose gender inclusive assignments this year.
She said gender-neutral restrooms are available in many buildings across campus, and the University is committed to allowing bathroom access no matter a person’s gender identity.
“Importantly, the University has a Restroom Access Statement, which affirms the University’s commitment to designating and maintaining a gender-neutral restroom in as many of its buildings as reasonably feasible,” Smiley said. “This statement also affirms an individual’s right to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity.”
UA communicates the availability of these resources through the Office of LGBTQ Affairs website and LGBTQ Resource Center in UA’s student union, she said.
NAU’s gender inclusive housing option has existed since fall 2012, Tom Bauer, director of NAU’s Office of Public Affairs, said in an email.
Students must submit an additional form to receive placement in the gender inclusive housing community, Bauer said, adding that 26 students have chosen to participate in the option.
He said all new buildings are required to have gender-neutral bathrooms.
NAU has a dedicated Office for LGBTQA Resources to provide information, and Campus Health Services, Student Life, and Residence Life provide information as well, Bauer said.
These groups also table on campus and visit classrooms to tell students about available resources, he said.
In the area of human resources, NAU provides a full-time professional staff member, a graduate assistant, a programming assistant and an LGBTQIA task force, Bauer said. The LGBTQIA task force is a group of faculty, staff and students that increases understanding and appreciation of LGBTQIA issues.
All three state universities provide the same student health insurance, which includes a trans* benefit that covers medical costs related to gender-confirming health care. ASU and NAU both have physicians trained in providing hormone therapies.
ASU provides information sheets about LGBTQ health concerns on its website and all ASU Health Services staff have received SafeZONE sensitivity training, ASUHS Director Dr. Allan Markus said in an email.
Reach the reporter at ammedeir@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @amy_medeiros
