Drew drops the ball...

[purgatorysflame]

These two articles highlight the defeated gender-neutral housing policy proposal at Drew. I thought that this community might be interested in:

http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1228628272215130.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

Comments

[deciphering_me]

Thanks for posting this. I don't have an articulate response to this right now. I'm very disappointed...as I'm sure many, many others are after all the hard work that was put into constructing this proposal.

[mineral2]

just out of curiosity, how many transgender students does Drew actually have? And how many would be incoming freshmen? In my four years, I wasn't aware there were any.

[purgatorysflame]

Currently, I can think of 4 out transgendered students. A lot of the first years are queer-friendly, and I think that one of them is trans. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more trans students in the freshman class as they get more comfortable with the school. However, Drew discriminating against trans students is probably a powerful reason not to come out.

I see a lack of gender-neutral housing as active discrimination against transgender students at Drew. In previous years, transgender students were offered to live in a medical single if they did not want to live with someone of their biological sex. Now, Drew is supposed to work on a case by case basis; however, nothing has been put in place. There's really no one to go to.

[nagirrebailed]

Hm, I always figured gender-neutral housing was one of the perks of living in WoCo.

[purgatorysflame]

The community seems to be ready - we had a town hall meeting and only one person out of fifty was opposed to it. It really seems to be the Board of Trustees and the older alumni/ae that are actively fighting against gender-neutral housing.

[musicwmnvla]

I could see them saying "a whole dorm might be too much, how about we start with one floor?", but rejecting the plan outright is ridiculous. I feel like the whole "what would parents of prospective students think?" thing is a cop-out. Drew is, supposedly, a socially liberal community, and the whole "Methodist roots" thing has no real bearing on the current CLA except that we share our campus with a theology school. I would hope that parents of transgendered students would be happy there were more comfortable options available to their children and parents who didn't want their children in gender neutral housing would simply request traditional housing. It's not like anyone would be forced to share a Tolley double with a stranger of the opposite sex.