Every fall, Nova Southeastern University fills its halls with students returning from their summer vacations or entering its classrooms for the first time. Although this time is already stressful for many students who are moving in, the process is even more nerve-wracking for transgender students. These students have an extra hurdle to the awkward first week of meeting roommates: explaining that they are a different gender than what their documents might suggest. The Department of Housing has approached this issue with student’s best interest in mind.
Director of Housing Operations at the Department of Housing, Victoria Myer has adopted an approach that protects trans students.
“I am of the opinion and direct my staff to never question what a student tells us what their gender identity is. I don’t want to inadvertently cause trauma to the student by saying ‘Well that’s not what the system says,’ or ‘That’s not what we have.’ We just say, ‘Oh well, sorry for the error,’ and fix it. So that’s always been our stance,” said Myer.
Myer has held her position since September 2021 and stated that in her time there she has received many requests for gender-affirming room assignments from trans students and has never had any problems from trans students abusing the policy or cis students expressing an unwillingness to room with a trans student.
Myer stated that adding any time requirements for a transition would be “harmful and dangerous” to students who need to switch dorms.
Trans students who are assigned to correct dorms are given the option whether or not to alert family to the decision while suitemates are called to be debriefed on the situation and are asked if they have any problems or concerns. According to Myer the answer has always been “no.”
In contrast to this, the NSU housing webpage says very little on the matter. Only displaying a small tab at the very bottom of the FAQ page that says that the department deals with transgender and non-binary students on a case-by-case basis.
“Students will not be automatically placed in a gender inclusive suite/apartment and these requests are handled on a case-by-case basis,” according to the website.
This lack of any solid information has caused concern to trans students on campus who worry that they can’t be put into the proper room assignment.
One such student, James Geier, a non-binary transmasculine sophomore biology major, sent out a request last year but was told that they could not room with their cisgendered male friend. Geier identified as non-binary at the time and has since started their transition, but the denial caused them to move in together off campus.
“Other schools do this thing where they have co-ed floors,” said Geier, offering a potential solution to the problem. Geier expressed that rooming only with cis people might not be a solution for all non-binary people, but they knew for sure that they did not want to room with cis women.
“That’s not the most comfortable situation for everybody,” said Geier.
This is a sentiment that junior biology major, Savanna Duda, repeated. A resident on campus, Duda says that her questioning of her gender identity has led to realizations about limited options.
“This year as I’ve been questioning and feeling like I don’t think that I fit into that kind of box. I realized I would be limited still on who I could room with based on my sex assigned at birth and I don’t think that’s fair,” said Duda.
Adrian Ditore, junior marine biology major, still had his deadname on records when he arrived at NSU in 2019. Because of that, his quad quickly filled up with female students.
“I emailed the girls and said that I’m a guy and they might not be comfortable rooming with a guy and I’m not comfortable rooming with them,”said Ditore.
Housing quickly assigned him to an all-male suite.
Ditore’s housing accommodations started before that. During Shark Preview he was paired with a cisgender male student, a decision that Ditore expressed helped him pick NSU.
“It shows the university confirming that they truly believe that trans people are the gender that they say they are,” said Ditore.
