The new school year is upon us and aside from Frosh week and the onset of classes, many incoming students can also look forward to meeting their new roommates.
For students at Ryerson University, the 2017-2018 school year will see a new approach to assigning accommodations.
The University announced today that “All residences will be open to all gender identities,” meaning that incoming students were given the option to select all-gender housing on their applications or voluntarily identify their gender to be paired with roommates of the same gender.
In a post on Ryerson Today, Ian Crookshank, Director of Housing & Residence Life shared that, “In many ways we created the societal norm that we segregate based on gender, but in most people’s living experience at home, they’re not segregated by gender.”
Crookshank goes on to say that “[We’re] stuck with this as the way that we do things, and what we’re seeing now is that if we open that up, many students don’t care one way or another. I think it’s important that we still offer the opportunity to accommodate someone who might care.”
The decision by Ryerson’s Housing and Residence Life team follows meetings with the Trans Collective, an RSU Equity Service Centre which is focused on “providing safe and accessible space for trans communities.”
The new approach to assigning accommodations also coincides with the removal of a mandatory gender question on applications submitted to the Ontario University Application Centre.
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