He hadn’t even left home for his freshman year at MSU, but animal science senior Uri Donnett and his family had spent months talking to housing officials over the phone, hoping to resolve a conflict. Donnett, a transgender student assigned to a female floor and female roommate in Brody Hall, said the arrangement would have been uncomfortable. And even when he succeeded in attaining a single room in another hall, Donnett said he felt out of place in his own room and uncomfortable in the bathroom he shared with two female suitemates.
“Your living situation automatically outs you, puts you in a situation that is not comfortable, when the whole purpose of a living situation is to be comfortable,” Donnett said. “You have to walk onto these very gendered floors and that experience can be very difficult.”
Almost three years later, students in Donnett’s situation might avoid similar conflicts under MSU’s transgender student housing policy, which went into effect within the last year.
The policy offers transgender students a say in their housing assignment by working with MSU’S LBGT Resource Center and Department of Residence Life. It enables transgender students to create a living arrangement based on their gender identification.
A student who is biologically female but identifies as male, such as Donnett, could have the opportunity to room with a male student.
“Assignments are really about what works best for them — sometimes the student has identified another student they’d love to live with, and we work to make that happen,” said Brent Bilodeau, director of the LBGT Resource Center. “Sometimes they want to live in an apartment. We want to create opportunities for students to feel they can be successful there.”
Although there is no guarantee all students’ preferences can be met, every effort will be made to find the best housing situation possible, he said.
MSU’s policy is guided by the wants and needs of each individual student on a case-by-case basis, Bilodeau said.
Although some universities across the country have begun to take steps toward gender-neutral housing — which creates opportunities for mixed-gender housing — many schools in the Midwest have not enacted such policies, Residence Life Director Paul Goldblatt said.
“We’ve done some pretty good work here,” he said. “We’re really one of the universities who has taken a step forward.”
The University of Michigan’s housing policy requires housing assignments are made based on birth gender, unless a student has undergone gender-reassignment surgery.
“We are aware that there are students who really have a desire to live in more comfortable room … not defined by one gender or another,” said Peter Logan, a spokesman for U-M housing.
“I think we’ll check out a little more the policy MSU has instituted — perhaps it could be a next logical step for us.”
Designed by a committee with representatives from the Department of Residence Life, University Housing and the LBGT Resource Center, and with input from transgender students, MSU’s policy is still new and developing, Bilodeau said. Members of the committee were supportive of the policy, and the students housed under its stipulations have reported satisfaction with their housing situations. No conflicts have been reported.
“At this point, my experience has been they’ve been real satisfied, (I) don’t have an example where a student said, ‘This didn’t work,’ or ‘I’m unhappy,’” Bilodeau said. “I can say I don’t know about the rest of the floor communities — I can’t say I know about every single person on every single floor.”
Students who have utilized the policy thus far have often selected a friend for a roommate, Bilodeau said, but a student who wants to go in blind can call the LBGT Resource Center for the contact information of LBGT-friendly students.
Advertising junior Kerrie Angus said students should be asked on the university housing preference sheet if they would be comfortable having a transgender roommate who is biologically of the opposite sex.
“I feel like you have to think about how this would affect their roommate, how this would make them feel,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m against or for the situation. I just feel like it’s a very sensitive thing that doesn’t just affect the transgender student. I’m trying to think of all the angles.”
Bilodeau said a student would not be placed in a situation where his or her safety or happiness could be at stake.
And if a student chooses to room with a member of the opposite biological sex, both roommates must agree they are comfortable with the arrangement, Goldblatt said.
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Last year, Donnett was the first student housed under the new policy, in a single on a co-ed floor with male suitemates. In his dorm room, Donnett says he feels more comfortable, making it easier to study, sleep and live.
“I guess it’s just (great) having housing that reaffirms my identity — seeing the university recognize that housing was an issue and take the steps to change it,” Donnett said. “It really is a good example of how the university has responded to students in a positive way.”
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