Gender inclusive dorms can be found on the 14th floors of Constitution, Enterprise and Estabrook Halls. // Photo courtesy of Antony-22.
The Hofstra University Office of Residence Life doubled the number of dorms allocated for gender-inclusive housing to fulfill the demand from students in the fall 2022 semester. The program started in Constitution Hall and now includes Enterprise and Estabrook Halls, all with gender-inclusive rooms on the 14th floors.
“Each year I saw a doubling or more from the previous year of students who are incoming first year students who were interested, so we were getting to the point where we were running out of spaces,” said Russ Smith, director of residential education.
The dorms are assigned to students upon specific request and have single stall lockable restrooms on the floors, according to Smith.
“It is really important for me to have a gender-neutral bathroom accessible,” said Giulian Romano, a freshman writing studies major.
The gender-inclusive housing also has the only rooms on campus where students of differing biological sex can live in the same room. This takes the form of four rooms that fit up to four people each, making up 16 of the 28 spaces for students to live, with the rest of the housing being rooms for a single person.
Despite expansions, some students still have issues living on these floors.
“The 14th floor is the only floor that doesn’t have elevator access,” said Valerie Dure, a sophomore history major. “One of my friends hurt his knees freshman year, and so he had to leave because he couldn’t physically walk to his dorm anymore.”
Accessibility is not something that the Office of Residence Life has had to consider, according to Smith.
“We have never received a request from a student that is looking to have an accessible space,” Smith said. “Should that ever occur, I think that would alter the way in which we offer those communities and the places we offer them.”
Moving to a more accessible space would also mean forgoing the single-stall restrooms, which is important for many of the residents.
“It’s a lose-lose,” said Skylar Homan, a computer science and mathematics major.
Another issue students have is the ability for cisgender students to freely move into the gender-inclusive dorms. While the space has not and will never be exclusionary to people of any gender, the ability for any student to move into the space can be a problem for the students who need the space the most.
“I need to make sure that I’m living with people who understand my experience and who are respectful and don’t make me feel unsafe,” Romano said, who had a problem when cisgender people moved into his room, leading him and his roommate to move out of gender-inclusive housing. “Being able to choose who I share my space with and knowing that we have this sense of community was important, and that wasn’t really paid attention to while I was on the 14th floor.”
The Office of Residence Life asserts that if students do not wish to have this occur, residents should find more students to live in their rooms.
Outside of this issue, the gender-inclusive floors have been able to provide a safe space for those who are able to live there, and the expansion of housing allocated has only allowed more students to reside in a space where they feel accepted.
