Ohio University will begin facilitating students of any gender and/or sexual orientation to share dorm rooms, so as to better accommodate students who are not simply a boy or a girl.
"And it's the right thing to do, even if it upsets some people," said Kent Smith, vice president for student affairs.
-- From "Ohio Univ. to try letting men and women room together, plan said to help transgender students" by The Associated Press 1/13/11
It's an idea that was pushed on behalf of the school's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center. Center Director Mickey Hart tells the student-run newspaper The Post the gender-neutral housing will be of particular benefit to students who identify as transgender.
Student Senate member Sean Martin says students in dating relationships who try to live together under the new housing option will be "frowned upon."
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From "Dorm barriers dropping at Ohio U." by Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch 1/13/11
Housing officials at the Athens campus had been independently studying the issue since the summer as a way to allow all students - gay, bisexual or straight - to pick their most-compatible roommates.
About 55 schools nationwide, including the Columbus College of Art & Design, Miami University and Oberlin College, allow some students of the opposite sex to share housing. Denison and Wright State University are studying the possibility.
Ohio University will discourage romantic partners from living together, but the school won't prohibit it.
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From "Ohio University to allow male-female roommates" by Lauren Bishop, Cincinnati.Com 1/13/11
But one parent of college-aged children, Lisa Schoenberger of Reading, said she wouldn't approve of such a living situation.
"All I can say as a parent is that if I'm paying for my child's education, they will abide by my rules and morals," she said. "I don't feel that it's moral to live with a member of the opposite sex before marriage. I know some will say that 'It's only platonic' but that doesn't cut it for me. Either agree to follow my rules when I'm footing the bill or pay for it yourself."
Jennifer Reed of Union Township, 28, said . . . "I think this experiment is a step in the right direction to accommodate and reflect the variety and scope of relationships found in the real world."
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