Students gathered Tuesday night to discuss a change to OU’s housing policy concerning those seeking gender neutral housing.

The group consisting of students and professors is advocating for changes to the OU Housing and Food Services that would create a gender blind housing policy which would allow for students to room with a person they feel more compatible with, regardless of their gender identity.

“Campus housing is more than just putting people in a place,” said Sherri Irvin, philosophy professor. “Prisons fill spaces with people, but campus housing is suppose to create a home environment for students.”

Irvin said she supports the idea of gender neutral housing.

“Being in a such a conservative state, people are not as open to the ideas of accepting other people who are not apart of socially accepted categories,” she said.

Irvin said there are risks to being open with your sexual orientation and gender identity.

“You don’t know if they will accept you, and if they don’t, will that lead to violence,” she said. “I don’t want people to live in constant fear.”

Julia Ehrhardt, Honors College professor, shared the informational side of what universities have faced when they have implemented a policy similar to the one being proposed at OU.

Ehrhardt compared OU to 34 other colleges and universities that have either implemented a gender neutral housing policy or offered a gender neutral floor.

“This has largely been a student-driven initiative,” Ehrhardt said. “This has stemmed mainly from an issue of safety, especially with transgendered students. This has nothing to do with students wanting to live with people who they intend to have a sexual relationship with.”

Ehrhardt said accommodations have been made for people with physical handicaps and student athletes, so the university has the capabilities to implement a gender neutral housing policy.

Ehrhardt shared her experience of having co-ed bathrooms when she was in college.

“Everyone was worried at first that men and women were not going to mingle and life would be hard for all of us, but at the end of the day, we had a clean bathroom, we all cooperated with each other, and we all respected each other,” Ehrhardt said.

Students were able to share their experiences about living on and off campus.

“I myself am not a member of the LGBT community, but I remember living in the athletic dorms my freshman year and hearing the comments and seeing people singled out,” said Brian Koss, biochemistry senior. “I decided to move off campus, and I share a house with a few girls. At first my family was concerned about my intentions to move in with them, but overtime they saw that there were no problems in the house.”

Koss said he wished there was a way to have students share on-campus living spaces without concern about gender. Kely Van Eaton, industrial engineering senior, said he wants the same thing.

“I lived in the dorms, and then I moved into my fraternity’s house and now I live off campus,” Van Eaton said. “I realize my experience may be better than others, but I can’t speak for everyone. I have also heard other stories.”

Van Eaton said he lives off campus with female roommates and feels comfortable with his choice to do so, but said he desired to have the option to be roommates with someone of the opposite sex on campus.

“It is the university’s duty to protect its students,” Van Eaton said. “We need to provide a safe place for students who some feel are not socially acceptable.”

The issue of safety was brought up many times in the meeting, not only about protecting students, but also about not creating a place that would allow all students who chose to live in a gender neutral setting to be a target by placing them in one distinct portion of campus.

But when it comes to implementation of a change in the policy, there is a plan to bring the proposal to the public.

“We want people to have the option of checking a box on the housing application,” said Matt Bruenig, Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society spokesman and an opinion columnist for The Daily.

Bruenig said this would not allow people to just randomly be allowed to room with someone they would either want to sleep with or personally prefer as their roommate.

“When you check this box, you surrender all rights to choosing your roommate, and you are now entered into a potluck form of selection,” Bruenig said. “You would be randomly chosen to room with someone who also checked the box. This would eliminate the argument that people can check the box to room with someone they want to sleep with.”

But the decision to change the policy is up to OU President David Boren and the OU Board of Regents.

“Housing and Food currently assess each complaint and accommodation need that any student brings up,” said Lauren Royston, OU Housing and Food Services spokeswoman, who was in attendance at the forum.

“We came here to hear the ideas of possible policy changes in Housing and Food,” said Dave Annis, OU Housing and Food Services director. “In the end, it is in the hands of President Boren and the Board of Regents.”

The discussion — named “We Are Oklahoma!” — was themed after President Boren’s Feb. 9 remarks saying he did not see gender-blind housing in the state happening, because “This is Oklahoma.” The event was sponsored by GLBTF and Oklahoma Students for a Democratic Society.

During the forum, the Undergraduate Student Congress passed a resolution in support of a gender neutral housing policy.