Graphic by Chandler Littleford/The Choate News
The landscape of Choate’s residential system is on the brink of transformation. For the first time in its 178 years, Choate is forging a path toward offering all-gender housing for its boarding students. Spearheading this initiative are Dean of Students Mr. James Stanley, Director of Residential Life Mr. Will Morris, and Fourth-Form Dean Mb Duckett-Ireland.
According to Mr. Morris, after surveying third-, fourth-, and fifth-form opinions, the three will take the idea to the senior administration of the School and then to the Board of Trustees. He said, “There’s a lot of enthusiasm and support for this idea, so I’m very optimistic that we will be able to get the approval that we need.”
All-gender housing is intended for non-binary or gender-nonconforming students and their allies. All students, regardless of their gender identity, would have the option to apply to live in the all-gender dorm.
If the all-gender housing program is approved, Choate will be the fifth of the institutions in the Eight Schools Association to embrace gender-inclusive housing. Phillips Academy, in Andover, Mass., and Phillips Exeter Academy, in Exeter, N.H., are both in their second years with such housing, and Northfield Mount Hermon, in Mount Hermon, Mass., and The Hotchkiss School, in Lakeville, Conn., are each running pilots this year.
“We are benefitting tremendously from collaboration with the Dean of Students offices of those other schools in terms of learning lots of lessons about set-up and how you go about collecting information,” said Mr. Morris. “We’re really benefiting from following the lead that some of those other schools have set up for us.”
The dormitory is intended as one more step in a larger initiative toward gender inclusivity on campus. Recent changes include de-gendering form dean assignments and expanding the way the Admissions Office collects information about applicants. In recent years, the School has installed lockable single-person bathrooms, floor-to-ceiling stalls, and separate changing areas for showers.
“This fits in with the broader picture of trying to build a community that is as inclusive as it can be,” Mr. Morris said. “Changes related to gender inclusivity are happening on a bunch of levels.”
The community has reacted positively to Mr. Morris’s announcement of the all-gender housing initiative at School Meeting in mid-November. “I’m excited to see that Choate is hopping on the bandwagon and pushing towards a campus that is more inclusive,” said Max Gingher ’19, Editor of Voices magazine and a member of SPECTRUM, the club supporting sexual minorities.
Ginger continued, “I am part of the LGBT community, and I feel that I as well as some other seniors that I’ve talked to would be interested in it.”
Connor Barnes ’19, Co-President of SPECTRUM, agreed. “I was really happy,” he said. “I’m kind of sad that I won’t be here for it. I would want to prefect or live in it. It’d be fun.”
Faculty have also showed support for the idea. “I think that this campus is really open to these things, and I think that the student body would fully support it and get behind it,” said Mr. Deron Chang, Director of Curricular Initiatives, who is in his 23rd year at Choate. “It certainly doesn’t hurt anybody. It’s only an inclusive thing to do.”
Mr. Morris said that even some parents have expressed their support. “We’ve had parents who have reached out and said, ‘We have a child at Choate and that child is cis-gendered, so I’m not as interested about this for my current child at this school. But, you know, one of their siblings is transitioning, and we’re so glad to hear that this is something that the school is supporting.’ So that’s really affirming,” he said.
At the same time, parent concerns are one primary challenge of the all-gender housing initiative. Mr. Morris said that the idea, in part, stems from “a broader societal conversation about gender and gender identity, which is actually a highly politicized and contentious conversation. Choate taking this step is not going to be without its critics.” He admitted that some parents have reached out with questions and concerns.
Mr. Chang said, “The only thing I could imagine would be difficult are the parents. If a student wants to be in this open house, and the parents don’t want the student to be in that open-house situation, that’s going to be problematic.”
The School plans to officially communicate the details of the initiative with the parents after it completes the initial phases of the proposal..
While there was no specific event that sparked the all-gender housing initiative, there existed within the community a sentiment that the current system lacked gender-inclusivity. “I’ve had kids who definitely are uncomfortable about the inflexibility, not only in mindset, but also in architecture,” Mr. Chang said.
Mr. Chang indicated how open-mindedness about gender identity has implications far beyond student housing situations. “Simply having this be a significant acknowledgement by the institution, I think it goes a long way toward universal acceptance of this idea that the binary system is an old way of thinking about things. And I think that shifts everyone’s mindset, not only about being non-binary in terms of your gender, but also about thinking about how pretty much everything in this world is gray and to think that anything in this world is black and white is an absurd way of thinking.”
Barnes agreed. “I hope that it breaks away barriers in the sense that there aren’t any real, problematic differences between the sexes,” he said. “We’re all just people living in the world.”
Mr. Morris said, “We have an ethical obligation to ensure that our campus does the best that it can to meet students where they are.”
