By Madeline Kimball

For an institution that likes its students to use phrases like “men and women for others” and “cura personalis,” Fordham is disappointingly silent on issues of health and happiness for members of its community who do not neatly fit into the categories of “men” and “women.”

In response to growing dialogue about sex and gender, many universities are changing their admissions, housing and other policies to reflect the needs of students whose gender identities and expressions are more complex than the traditional binary admits.

Just this month, Princeton announced the conversion of its single-stall restrooms to gender-neutral facilities, and women’s college Bryn Mawr decided to begin accepting transwomen and intersex individuals who do not identify as male for enrollment. Scroll through your online news sources and you will find many examples of institutions of higher education rising to meet today’s standards of diversity. Fordham will not feature among them.

If Fordham is sincere about wanting to teach its students compassion for all people and concern for the whole person, it needs to start catching up on gender dialogue.

I understand that Fordham is hesitant to become involved in politcally and religiously controversial issues, but the university is in danger of becoming hypocritical by not upholding the values it claims to maintain. Let us look at just two areas where there is ample room for improvement: public restrooms and housing.
I have found only two gender-neutral (single-stall) public restrooms at Rose Hill so far — one each in O’Hare and Salice Conley. Some of the other residence halls have them, but not all. If there are any in the academic buildings or McGinley, they are too well-hidden to count as accessible. The rest are gendered, multi-stalled facilities, which pose two problems for people whose sex, gender or appearance is not easily identifiable as male or female, or whose gender is not the one they were assigned at birth.

The first is choosing a restroom, which especially affects people who are gender non-binary or intersex. Having to pick between two inadequate choices can be distressing; it feels like being forced to be or to pretend to be something one is not.

Before you ask why this is such a big deal — why just picking one elicits such emotion — imagine being forced to use the bathroom opposite of the one you usually do. Not just when your bathroom is busy, not just when the other is empty: always. When people see you, they will wonder why you are there and judge you.
This brings us to the second issue: facing the consequences of one’s choice. Gendered restrooms encourage gender policing, wherein someone tries to enforce a particular understanding of what gender should be onto someone else. This enforcement has often involved calling authorities, verbal or physical assault or other forms of harassment.

The unjust treatment that transgender people face in public restrooms is finally getting attention in the news. Other groups who are targets of harassment include people who are androgynous, women who look “too masculine” and men who look “too feminine,” even if they identify as cisgender.

Even in places that do not have a history of this kind of violence in their facilities, these groups of people may feel at risk when they make choices about which facilities to use.

Fordham has not taken the smallest step to address this issue. At a minimum, it should create a policy and teach community members that gender policing is not tolerated.

A better effort would be to install gender-neutral restrooms across the campus, including in the buildings with communal showers.

Housing is an extension of the restroom issue for people who do not conform to the sex and gender binary, with application for transgender people as well. Fordham has a strict same-gender rooming policy and does not offer a housing option for people of marginalized gender identities. This can lead to deeply unhealthy living situations for people who are randomly placed with intolerant roommates.

There is very little privacy on campus; one’s bedroom is the closest thing one has to personal space. When that space is tainted by bigotry, it becomes unsafe, and the experience of having no secure space to return to is extremely detrimental to one’s mental and emotional health.

The best option currently available for people of minority sex and gender identities is living in a single, but availability is limited.

Furthermore, having no choice but to live alone exacerbates isolation from the rest of the community. Fordham should instead organize an integrated learning community, like Wellness, specifically for people who want to express their gender safely. Wellness housing options are havens for people who do not want to be pressured into consuming alcohol or drugs. Fordham should take a stance by implementing gender neutral housing, similar to Wellness housing.

Although this still separates gender non-binary and intersex students from the rest of campus, it provides safety, intra-community support and opportunities for funded co-programming that helps connect and educate the rest of campus.

Rooms within this community should not have to be same-gender, and everyone who applies should have to verify whether or not they are comfortable living with and would be supportive of a roommate who does not conform to the gender binary.

If Fordham worries that this would interfere with its futile attempt to curb heterosexual activity, it could institute a policy whereby students who take this housing option agree to be randomly assigned roommates within the community every year, rather than choosing to live with acquaintances.

You can learn about these issues from the Fordham Que(e)ry report that was released in April 2013, which has been posted online. It includes statistics and recommendations which I unfortunately have not heard discussed by Fordham administration.

Although Fordham claims to be a welcoming community for all types of students, they have not shown support for the small gender neutral student body. Until the university makes real effort to accommodate its gender minorities, “men and women for others” will continue to ring hollow.