Gender-Inclusive Housing

Gender-Inclusive Housing allows for same-gender, different-gender, transgender, or other-gender identities to live together as roommates, regardless of birth sex.  It also refers to residential spaces that provide multi-gender housing facilities, such as mixed-gender residential sections, and gender-inclusive restrooms and showers.

   

The Residence Life and Housing Office will make a strong effort to match students with a roommate that meets their needs in terms of gender-identity.  This is handled on a case by case basis.

 

• A student can always contact the Residence Life and Housing Office directly to discuss Gender-Inclusive Housing and make specific requests.
• Alternatively, students have the option to select Gender-Inclusive Housing when they fill out their Housing Questionnaire.  We will contact each of these student individually and ask what housing situation would be best for them.  (For example, students who identify as gender non-binary or transgender might request a roommate who identifies in the same way.) 
• In all situations, roommate matches will also be made using the answers from the Housing Questionnaire, such as how early they prefer to go to bed, if they smoke, and what expectations they would have of a roommate. 
• While we do our best to find the exact gender-identity a student is looking for in a roommate, sometimes we are limited by what other information students have shared with us about their gender-identities.  If we cannot find a preferred roommate match, we will work with students individually to find the best solution possible. 
• If a student does not select Gender-Inclusive Housing on their Housing Questionnaire and does not otherwise contact the Residence Life and Housing Office, they will be assigned a same-gendered roommate (or roommates if assigned to a triple).

      

Whitman also has a number of Gender-Inclusive residence halls where residence hall sections are not restricted to a single gender, although students are generally still matched with same-gender roommates.  

 

• Currently there is Gender-Inclusive Housing for first-year students in the entirety of Lyman House and in some of the residential sections of Jewett Hall.  Both have gender-inclusive restroom and showers. 
• Students returning to Whitman are welcome to choose whomever they would like as a roommate, regardless of gender.  Halls and houses for returning students are all gender-inclusive, except for Prentiss Hall which is all self-identified women.  These include Stanton Hall, College House, Douglas Hall, and the Interest House Community (IHC).  All of these have gender-inclusive restrooms and showers.

  

We encourage students concerned or curious about their housing arrangements to contact their Resident Director or the Residence Life and Housing Office at 509-527-5297 or email us at on_campus_housing@whitman.edu.