1. Gender Inclusive Housing in an On Campus Environment
May 16, 2017

2. The Agenda
Use of language
The Why
The How

3. The Environment
Over the past 5 years the DC/UOIT residence has experienced increasing instances of students requesting accommodation based on gender.
Also, the local student housing market has become more competitive, moving toward oversaturated. The residence is losing students to off campus housing and needs to ensure that any steps that can be taken to mitigate this are explored.

4. The Impetus for Change
As the DC/UOIT residence only offered single-gender housing the staff were challenged to find housing solutions that fit all students involved.
Director/RLM not comfortable with “side door” approach to accommodation and accessibility. Students should not have to seek special accommodation for something that others have a common path toward.

5. The Challenges
As the on campus residence provider we have an elevated duty of care toward the student, both real and perceived.
High expectations when it comes to safety and security.
Great deal of awareness and discussion on Sexual Assault on campus.
How to ensure that we don’t create an unsafe situation for any of our students.
General thinking was that a female/male room pairing would produce more conflict than a traditional same gender pairing.
Also concern for more frequent instances of moving roommates.

6. The Epiphany
The solution was fairly simple, that we would use our StarRez roommate portal to allow students to opt in to the service.
Students can either find predetermined roommates or meet new ones within that housing preference.
Students have the ability to determine if the prospective roommate is acceptable
Residence not directly responsible for the pairing.

7. The Pairs Who chooses gender inclusive housing?
Some of the pairings we have seen at Durham:
Brothers and sisters
Friends
Boyfriends and girlfriends
People who have transitioned or are transitioning
People who have selected the same housing preference on the portal

8. The StarRez Gender Inclusive Housing has always been an OPT IN PROCESS
YEAR ONE:
We took all of our gender inclusive requests via and completed the pairings manually
YEAR TWO:
We created a portal step so people were able to opt in and room with someone who they did not know who had the same housing preference as them

9. The Portal 1. Requesting a Roommate
Due to roommate portal filters (classification and term) students can request a roommate through the portal step.

10. 2. The Housing Preference

11. The Importance of Filters
The Roommate Portal has a number of back end pages that ensure students are only able to view other students who have the same criteria as their own.

12. The Potential Matches
SINGLE-GENDER HOUSING M can see M F can see F O can see O MIXED-GENDER HOUSING M can see M, F, O F can see M,F, O O can see M, F, O

13. The Logistics What happens after the Roommate Portal closes:
To the students who participated in the roommate portal and opted into gender inclusive housing but did not find a roommate in the housing portal?
To the students who apply to Residence and do not have the opportunity to participate in the roommate portal?
2. What if I change my mind after I move into Residence and
don’t want to live in a mixed-gender room?
want to live in a mixed-gender room?
3. Is gender inclusive housing only offered in semi private suites?
4. What happens if there is a roommate conflict in a mixed-gender room?

14. The Activity In a group, take the next five minutes to come up with:
1 or 2 challenges that you may come across if you were implementing gender inclusive housing at your property
The solutions to those challenges

15. The Take Away Questions? It can be done with minimal risk
Must be cognizant of risk when implementing
Questions?