On the third and fourth floor of Devereux Hall, a new housing option is in place. The gender-inclusive housing was offered this year for students who were interested and a portion of each of these two floors are dedicated to this new program.
“This actually was a decision made before I became the RD [residence director] for Dev,” said Gabby Slavny, a Devereux Hall residence director. “It was Nichole Gonzalez’s initiative to get gender inclusive housing on St. Bonaventure’s campus.”
Slavny then said the program has to do with the Franciscan value of radical hospitality.
“A community is a community because of everyone that is in the community,” said Slavny.
Elizabeth Freeman, president of Spectrum, the campus’ LGBTQ+ club, which was instrumental in introducing this program to St. Bonaventure University.
“It was one of the several previous eBoards who kind of sat down and said, ‘Hey, other college campuses are doing this whole gender inclusivity thing, I think Bona’s should do it too,’ and they took it to Nichole and really set things into motion,” said Freeman, “As Spectrum, we kind of want to… really get out there and do something to actively change our campus for the better.”
The process to bringing a gender-inclusive housing option to SBU entailed answering many what-if questions.
Freeman said, “A lot of the rejection that we initially faced came from, ‘Well what if things don’t work? What if it doesn’t work well for our students? What if something happens?’”
Her response to these doubts was to present statistics from other college campuses, which had already put in place a gender inclusive option for student rooming. Freeman said this info shows rates of crime and Title IX going down with this option on campuses.
Bobby Nguyen, a resident assistant on the third floor of Devereux Hall, is responsible for one of the areas, which include the gender-inclusive housing.
“With being that only an area on the whole wing is gender inclusive, people might single out the [residents in the gender inclusive areas],” said Nguyen.
“We’ll face little problems respect-wise. People really are not aware that part of the dorm is gender inclusive, so say whenever they go to shower, people tend to wear less clothes,” said Nguyen. “That might be a problem but I’m pretty sure with floor meetings and people addressing the issue, it won’t be that big of a deal anymore.”
These concerns were heard of by Slavny as well.
“I know there was a lot of confusion and people not agreeing with it as far as alumni, but I was expecting parents coming in on move-in day. I was expecting complaints,” said Slavny.
Slavny was present in Devereux Hall for the whole move-in day and experienced no negative reactions to the new housing option. “There was nothing; no one had any issues with it that was brought to my attention.”
“Personally, I feel like it’s a great opportunity for students because anyone can live there, regardless of their gender identity, so I think it makes people more comfortable in their living situations, which can help a lot of people,” said Slavny “Also, for other people living in [the gender-inclusive housing], that maybe their sexual gender is the same as their gender expression, for those people living as allies I think that’s like a learning experience as well for them.”
There were also various adverse reactions to Spectrum for speaking out for gender inclusive housing.
“Spectrum is supposed to be a welcoming, happy, loving place. We are not supposed to deal with the negativity, but as soon as you jump into things, like becoming active, all of a sudden you get so much naysaying, and we have faced a lot of negativity from this campus,” said Freeman. “That was definitely a big slap in the face for the eBoard that really got it started.”
Nguyen said his residents seem to be fine with the new housing option on their floor.
“I can gear my floor programs now to suit a more inclusive community,” said Nguyen. “All in all, I also think that when people have friends over, it will be much more beneficial for them to use the all-gender restroom, so that they don’t have to go all the way over to the girls or guys side to use the bathroom.”
The current gender-inclusive housing program is in a trial period, which is why only two floors currently offer it. Freeman said this is a very good first step.
“What we are looking for is for it to go well,” said Freeman, “As long as third and fourth Dev go well, then we could be seeing gender inclusive housing in the townhouses, in the apartments, in generally most of the dorm buildings.”
By Staff Writer Landon Allison @allisolj17@bonaventure.edu
