On Friday the 17th, I attended the Board of Trustee meet-and-greet held at the Zelnik Pavilion. With the first two trustees I spoke to, I had fine conversations, though I left somewhat unsatisfied, feeling less like we’d engaged in discussions about university policy and vision than like we’d made small talk. But I guess that’s the nature of a meet-and-greet. And I can only speak for my experience, because I think a lot of other people felt their conversations were productive.
But what this Wespeak is really about is the conversation I had with the last trustee, from which I did come away feeling like I had an idea of Wesleyan’s larger vision. Sadly, what struck me most about this vision was how resistant it remains to confronting or even acknowledging the systems of oppression that are enabled and maintained on this campus, in this case in particular, as regards norms of gender.
The discussion had turned to gender-neutral housing as a student concern– specifically, why after dedicated efforts by students and overwhelming support from the student body, it has still not been truly implemented. I’m not sure of the extent to which the trustee really understood what gender-neutral housing was or why it had arisen as an issue—I’m pretty sure, though, that he got that it had to do with “the gays”. After the trustee made some vague and token statements about Wesleyan valuing diversity, the student who had brought up the topic mentioned the potential situation of a transgender person being paired with someone who was trans-/homo- phobic. I’m trying to give fair reporting here, but I don’t have direct quotes so I’ll just have to paraphrase: in response to the student’s statement, the trustee said that the first-year room selection process was random; that that was how it was for all students, no exceptions; that this was a personal issue that could be worked out among individual students after arrival on campus; and finally, didn’t everyone deserve the opportunity to live with people from different backgrounds–i.e., what I understood was, shouldn’t the potential to “share our diverse experiences” outweigh the selfish, superfluous desires of a transgender or other person to feel safe and comfortable in their own living space?
I couldn’t believe he said that. But at the same time, I could. Trustee, you’ve probably never really thought about gender or how it’s constructed or how its construction can wreak havoc on people’s lives. On one hand, it makes perfect sense if you haven’t, because that’s how it works – social constructions like gender roles, expressions, and boundaries are experienced as natural and concrete, though they are humanly negotiated. On the other hand, though, gender-neutral housing has been a cause on this campus that certain students have fought incredibly hard for, that the student body has championed, that is not even a logistically difficult thing to put into place, and still, it has not been accomplished. Wesleyan has opened my eyes to the forces at work in the world that create our everyday realities and that often involve the sanctioning of certain norms or groups to the exclusion and subjugation of many, many others. Administrative powers that keep blocking gender-neutral housing, now you need to open your eyes– recognize the limitations of your worldviews, and put some faith in the ideas of students whose intelligence and worth you claim to so highly value. It’s time for gender-neutral housing, now.
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