The 2008-2009 school year will be the first in which students may live in gender-neutral rooms. Fewer groups, however, decided to draw into gender-neutral rooms than some staff expected in all four undergraduate residences — Narnia, Terra, Castano and Mirrielees — that are part of the gender-neutral housing pilot program.

“Surprisingly, nobody requested gender-neutral housing,” said 2008-2009 Narnia Residential Computing Consultant (RCC) Jon Merola ‘09, referring to his house. “So everyone is going to be living same sex.”

In Terra, six pairs of roommates decided to room gender-neutral next year. Because Terra consists mainly of two-room doubles, 12 of the 46 residents who drew into Terra will be living in mixed-gender rooms.

“Terra has unofficially been accommodating mixed-gender rooms for years before this, so the process was no different this year than last year,” said Matt Bush ‘10, Terra’s kitchen manager for next year.

Historically, Terra has adopted a hands-off policy regarding its residents’ living situations and arrangements.

“To my knowledge, there have not been any complaints from other residents in Terra about gender-neutral roommate pairs,” said Yoni Teitelbaum ‘09, Terra’s house manager for next year. “Though, in the past, there have been instances where residents learned about the gender-neutral rooming at Terra and moved out within the first week of the quarter.”

Draw groups hoping to live in mixed-gender rooms had to sign a contract with Housing a few days prior to the in-house Draw. Part of the contract stipulates that gender-neutral housing is not meant for romantic couples.

“It’s pretty much left to the hands of the people who want to live in gender-neutral rooms to ensure that they understand that policy,” Teitelbaum added.

In Mirrielees, seven groups of three decided to room in mixed-gender rooms.

“A lot fewer people drew gender-neutral than I expected,” said Kevin Dumolga ‘09, a Mirrielees Resident Assistant (RA) for next year. “One reason may be that some groups didn’t know they had to sign up for gender-neutral housing before the in-house Draw.”

“At least one or two groups that wanted to room gender-neutral missed the sign-up deadline and had to re-arrange their Draw group,” Dumolga added.

The new mixed-gender rooming option did not affect the in-house Draw at Mirrielees or Terra. At these two houses, those hoping to room in mixed-gender rooms followed the same procedure as other Draw groups in terms of choosing rooms.

But in Castano, those who decided to room mixed-gender were offered the choice of specific two-room doubles prior to the regular in-house Draw.

“The [Residence Student Affairs Specialist] of Manzanita, Michael Gray, set aside three two-room doubles, one on each floor, for the six people that wanted mixed-gender rooming,” said 2008-2009 Castano RA Rowza Rumma ‘10. “This only affected the in-house Draw in that there were fewer two-room doubles to choose from for the other Draw groups.”