Open Housing

Open Housing (formerly Gender Neutral Housing) is the term for the series of policies put forward by the Columbia College Student Council and Engineering Student Council beginning in the 2009-10 academic year. The policies focus on changing the rules governing how Housing Services deals with gender and gender identity in the residence halls.

In 2010, under the direction of then-VP Policy Sarah Weiss, a trial run was approved by administrators for the upcoming year which would allow students to opt into the system. The new rules would be:

• A student could opt to live with someone who is listed in the system as the same gender
• Housing would allow students to claim exclusion from the gender binary, such as identifying as transsexual
• A student who is being assigned a random roommate would not be assigned one of a differing gender, unless specifically requesting that option

Despite administrative approval, the trial run was ultimately not implemented due to the scheduling of Deans Michele Moody-Adams and Feniosky Pena-Mora, who had to also approve the program, but did not have time to formally review it before Room Selection. A revision of the policy is planned for the 2010-11 academic year, and is slated to be implemented for the upcoming Room Selection.