The Ivy League as a whole is moving toward gender-neutral housing with Yale University's recent consideration of the policy.
Penn has offered gender-neutral housing since fall 2005, after a gay male student who wanted to live with his female best friend raised the issue.
Even if Yale chooses to offer the program, it will not be an option until at least fall 2009. If the policy is implemented, Princeton University will be the only remaining Ivy not to provide that option.
Last semester, Yale sophomore and former LGBT Cooperative Queer Resource Center director Edward Chang drafted a proposal -- based largely on other schools' policies - requesting gender-neutral housing at Yale.
"Last year, Yale included gender identity as part of its non-discrimination policy," said Chang, adding that gender-neutral housing seemed like a natural extension of that policy.
But when Chang's proposal was rejected, he asked the Yale College Council - Yale's student governing body - to look into the issue.
Yale Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske said he worries that gender-neutral housing would allow heterosexual couples to live together, possibly destroying "some good social fabric."
Yale sophomore and chairwoman of the YCC's committee on gender-neutral housing Katrina Landeta said Yale was looking into a new housing policy because other schools have done so.
This spring, 82 of over 5,500 Penn on-campus residents live in gender-neutral housing, and 108 students applied for fall 2008, according to information provided by College Houses and Academic Services. But whether or not a school offers gender-neutral housing may not determine whom students actually live with.
"People have been living with people of another gender for a long time," said Penn LGBT Center director Bob Schoenberg, "just not officially." He explained that in the past, two male and two female students who received adjacent rooms would switch roommates.
"I would be horrified if Penn didn't have [gender-neutral housing]," said College sophomore Laura Ferro, who plans to live in gender-neutral housing next semester. She said she is too old for the University to tell her whom she can or cannot live with.
Although Lambda Alliance chairman and College sophomore Dennie Zastrow praised Penn's policy, he said there is room for improvement.
Since students applying for gender-neutral housing have to fill every bed in the room, incoming freshmen are excluded from the policy. Zastrow suggested the University allow students to live with members of the opposite sex even if they don't have specific roommates in mind by asking all students to check "yes" or "no" for gender-neutral housing on applications.
"Home is a very comfortable spot," said Ferro, "and at the end of a long day, there really is a certain comfort in going home and getting to hang out with your best friends who are living there with you."
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
