Pushed by GLBT students who wanted more flexible living arrangements, Macalester College, starting this fall, allows older students who live in apartment-style housing to choose suite mates of any sex or gender.

When matching roommates, the college still does so by sex. Macalester’s Queer Union isn’t happy about that, and I strongly disagree with them on this. Colleges should absolutely match roommates based on sex when it’s up to them to do the matching. I know – I’m not hip and progressive. Get over it.

The push for more permissive roommate arrangements came from Macalester’s Queer Union. Krista Jankowski, the group’s cochairwoman, said the intent was to make Macalester a safer and more open place for students who are intersex or transgendered and may not identify with either gender, and to give all students, gay or straight, more housing choices.

“Queer students might not be comfortable rooming with roommates of the same sex for fear of making them uncomfortable,” Jankowski said.

She said students are “extremely grateful” for the gender-open policy in apartment-style housing, though they are disappointed that Macalester still assigns roommates by gender. “That doesn’t necessarily coincide with our philosophy on gender-open housing,” she said. “We’d still like to refine the process and … make reality match theory.”

Macalester College joins a group of other colleges and universities that already offer similar options:

Carleton College in Northfield has a similar program in its apartment-style housing. Hoppe said Beloit and Lawrence Colleges in Wisconsin and Grinnell in Iowa do as well.

This piece also mentions Wesleyan University’s gender-blind housing for transgender students, but I’m unable to find any info about it on their Residential Life page. There could be something there that just isn’t jumping out at me. Does anyone else see anything?