The University’s residence halls are changing — and not just on the outside. The ranges of students attending the University are becoming more diverse, and residence halls are accommodating accordingly.

Nugent Hall, built in fall 2010, was the first new residence hall seen on campus for nearly 40 years. Nugent partnered with The Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services and Beckwith Residential Support Services to create accommodations for students with disabilities.

Bousfield Hall, set to open in fall 2013, will include a suite-style layout, some of which will be designated as co-ed suites.

The common theme: neutrality. The University is recognizing that they must not only consider the diverse needs of students, but that constricting dorms to students of a particular sex, ability or sexual orientation just won’t cut it anymore.

The University’s decision to include gender-neutral housing in Bousfield Hall is a start to providing more options and equality in students’ lives, but it’s certainly not a finish. 

Particularly for LGBT students, gender-neutral housing provides a level of comfort, security and a tolerant atmosphere that may not be offered by traditional residence-hall living. 

But this kind of housing can and should be expanded, giving students more options to better suit their lifestyles and promoting inclusion. 

But when it comes to the needs of transgender students, the University isn’t quite there. Many of the dorms are segregated by floor, where residents share large, multi-stall, single-sex bathrooms. For the sake of inclusivity and promotion of diversity, the bathrooms in the dorms and around campus need to be updated. 

The University’s idea of gender-neutral bathrooms is still a bit hazy. The gender-neutral bathrooms around campus are single use. Gender-neutral and single-use bathrooms are not necessarily synonymous. Single-use bathrooms are generally marked as a “family” restroom, but a truly gender-neutral bathroom — as we would prefer to see — are multi-stall, multi-sink restrooms where individuals of any sex or gender may enter. A more transgender-friendly and -inclusive campus will not just place a sparse number of single-sex bathrooms around campus and call it enough.  

While the University’s inclusion of gender-neutral housing in Bousfield deserves praise, there’s room for improvement. Housing should reflect the needs of every student the University chooses to admit. 

Gender-neutral housing benefits the entire student body. Students deserve to choose to live with the people that they feel most comfortable and safe with, regardless of their sex. 

Most residence halls today are sex-segregated, and leaving only one viable place for an alternative may not perpetuate that segregation, but it’s not doing enough to remedy it either. Our University is on the right path to prove that diversity is more than just a person’s skin color or socioeconomic status, it’s about ideas, varied backgrounds and ability.

This is what makes an inclusive and diversity-welcoming university, so let’s continue to be on the forefront of diversity among this country’s universities.