So the trans community at Ithaca College is choosing to segregate themselves? Is that what’s happening here?
Campus Reform reports:
College creates dorms for transgender and nonbinary studentsIthaca College now has a separate dorm for transgender and nonbinary students. The 20-bed residential community, “Open Pages,” operates “to provide an inclusive space for non-cis identifying students and to create a supportive community on campus,” according to its website.In a recent interview with Inside Higher Ed, students behind the push for transgender housing said that their university was “initially reluctant” to transform some of the dorm rooms into single units.“The priority wasn’t money, it wasn’t filling beds; it was making sure the students were comfortable,” Ithaca’s former director of residential life told Insider Higher Ed.Open Pages attempts to create a sense of community “with peers, peer leaders, and faculty” through “opportunities for students to discuss identity, privilege, and oppression as it relates to gender.”Inside Higher Ed reported that the trangender-specific housing is an update to Ithaca’s previous accommodations. In 2016, the college announced a policy allowing students to live with roommates of the opposite sex, according to The Ithacan, the student newspaper.Campus Pride, a non-profit addressing the campus environment for LGBTQ students, lists 427 colleges with gender-inclusive housing options. The list shows that at least one college in all 50 states has gender-inclusive housing.Ithaca’s Campus Pride rating is five out of five stars, based on policies, recruitment, resources, and other areas of assessment.An “LGBTQ-Friendly Report Card” cites examples of these areas: the college has a “[p]rocedure for reporting LGBTQ related bias incidents and hate crimes,” “[r]egularly offers educational events surrounding intersectionality of identities for LGBTQ people,” and has “[p]aid staff with responsibilities for LGBTQ support services.”
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