The short story It means that two people of opposite gender are assigned to be roommates. Your first response is probably one of disbelief. How could Stanford let a male and a female live in the same room? The answer is, you don't. If you get gender-neutral housing, you are guaranteed to have a two-room double, ensuring some degree of privacy. The residences that have this option are:
The long story Stanford has been one of the most liberal colleges around. They first introduced coed residences (buildings). Then they introduced coed corridors and floors. Gender neutral housing is the next step--coed rooms. At the beginning it caused much outrage from parents who felt this system could be exploited. In fact, even today, many students have trouble trying to convince their parents to let them live in gender neutral housing. While the actual process requires no parent approval, it is usually a good idea to make sure your parents are okay with it. It often takes quite a bit of persuasion too, since parents are still iffy with the notion of two unmarried students of opposite genders living together. On top of the "this person is my friend, we get along perfectly fine" reason, another common excuse used is that "it gets me better housing". Since gender neutral roommates are guaranteed by the Stanford Housing department to have two-room doubles, it is often ideal for sophomores with bad draw numbers. If they did not do gender neutral housing, they would probably end up in a 1-room double, or a 1-room triple. From what many current residents in Castano say, it's an excuse that does indeed work. |