The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 91

Implementation of Gender-Neutral Housing

As college and university housing departments consider future construction or renovation projects, gender-neutral housing should be
a topic of discussion in facilities planning. One
of the most common obstacles to establishing a
GNH program in a traditional hall is the community bathroom. Considering principles of
Universal Design to create facilities similar to
the family bathrooms found in retail establishments that would include bathing/showering
spaces would serve the needs of students with
disabilities, LGBT students, and anyone who
might not be comfortable using the community
bathroom. Including such facilities provides
greater ﬂexibility for assignments and use of the
building. Such Universal Design principle considerations are cited in ACUHO-I Standards and
Ethical Principles for College & University Housing
Professionals (ACUHO-I, 2014), in addition to
the standard that college and university housing
administrations "create gender-neutral speciﬁc
housing where feasible" and provide facilities
that are "adequate to carry out the mission including providing space for underrepresented
groups" (p. 14).
As the implementation of gender-neutral
housing is evolving, there is a need for sharing
best practices among housing professionals.
Regional and national conferences, newsletters, and websites could be used for sharing
information. Unfortunately, such information
is quickly outdated and requires regular updating to be useful. Particularly as institutions are
attempting to launch trial programs, they need
professional resources to call upon as they
develop their proposals.
Finally, Willoughby et al. (2012) suggested
that the most important implication for practice from their examination of gender-neutral

housing practices was the need for formal
evaluation of these programs at individual
institutions. They found that few institutions
had undertaken any formal assessment of the
impact of gender-neutral housing. It is suggested that institutions offering GNH options
include assessment of the impact of this
housing option on students in their regular assessment program.

CONCLUSION
Gender-neutral housing is a growing trend on
U.S. college and university campuses. Prior to
this study, there had been no comprehensive
examination of the extent of the consideration
and implementation of this housing option.
Currently, GNH is being implemented in a
variety of different forms at a wide range of
institutional types and sizes. Gender-neutral
housing is also being discussed and considered at an even wider number of campuses.
Fewer than 15% of the respondents to the study
indicated that there had been no conversation
or consideration at all of GNH on their campuses, demonstrating that this housing option
is indeed a topic of discussion on college and
university campuses.
Gender-neutral housing has the potential
to offer a greater sense of safety and inclusion
for transgender, gender non-conforming, and
lesbian, gay, and bisexual students; to provide
greater ﬂexibility in housing assignments; and
to allow opportunities for broader educational
experiences for many students on our campuses. It should also be noted that the presence
of GNH options may inﬂuence some students'
choice of college (Krum et al., 2013).
The ﬁndings of the current study show
that, although not all campuses are engaged

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2

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