Despite a few technical glitches, Duke has integrated the sexes—at least residentially.
Fourteen individual students have taken advantage of the gender-neutral housing policy on Central Campus this year, Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for Housing, Dining and Residence Life, said.
“We really didn’t expect large demand for it its first year,” Gonzalez said. “Actually, the number turned out to be about what we predicted for the first year.”
HDRL has yet to discuss exactly how gender-neutral housing will be integrated into the house model, Gonzalez added, though he noted that he assumes it will continue.
“We haven’t gotten to that level of detail yet,” he said.
An additional eight students are living in gender-neutral housing as members of the Nexus, the only Selective Living Group to currently offer gender-neutral living situations, wrote Nexus Executive Chair, Elena Botella, a junior.
This puts the total number of students participating in the option at 22.
HDRL decided to implement a gender-neutral housing policy last Fall after receiving a recommendation from Campus Council, the University’s former residential government which, was absorbed by Duke Student Government in the Spring. The housing policy was largely motivated by a report from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Life for the 2010 Committee on Gender. The policy’s development was also aided by members of Blue Devil’s United.
There are also two gender-neutral sections in Kilgo and Few Quadrangles on West Campus. In these communities, same-sex roommate pairs can live next to another same-sex roommate pair of the opposite gender. In these areas, residents also have the opportunity to use a gender-neutral restroom.
Central Campus offers a slightly different take on gender-neutral housing, Gonzalez said.
Those who opt-in to gender-neutral housing on Central can live in an apartment with a member of the opposite sex, though roommates must have separate rooms and a bathroom that locks, according to HDRL policy. These apartments hold four students and vary between two doubles or one double and two singles.
Residents, however, endured some technical issues with the new housing and room assignments, especially for Nexus residents.
Sophomore Andy Chu, a Nexus member living in a gender-neutral apartment, said he encountered some inconveniences with his room assignment under the new system.
Chu and his roommates were not given their housing assignments until the end of the summer, he said, adding that their problems did not end there.
“When we got to campus, all of our room keys were wrong,” he said. “We were all given keys to the wrong apartments.”
They were not only given the wrong apartment keys, but each roommate was given a key to a separate apartment scattered throughout different locations on Central.
Botella said, however, the issues stemmed mainly from RoomPicks software problems.
“The online process does not allow people of different genders to be put into the same apartment,” she said. “We had to work with [HDRL] to input it manually.”
When HDRL manually filled the section, they accidentally used an outdated version of the Nexus’ roster, leaving out eight people, Botella added. The apartments that should have gone to those students became double-booked because they appeared as available during regular RoomPicks.
Botella said she hopes that the software is fixed by RoomPicks next year to avoid the same confusion.
“I think it would make more sense that [the program] doesn’t make the distinction between male roommates and female roommates, at least in the two and three bedroom apartments,” she said, adding that the problem is now resolved. The eight students displaced are now properly accommodated, as are the students originally assigned to the apartments.
Residents living in gender-neutral housing seem content with their assignments.
“It is very normal, in the case of the apartments,” Chu said. “It’s a lot like being in a dorm with guys and girls living right next to each other. There’s still a lot of personal space and we haven’t had any issues [with each other] yet.”
Nicole Kyle contributed reporting.
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