Clark Approves Gender Blind/Neutral Housing

The administration has decided to amend their housing policy to allow upperclass students of different genders to room together on campus. The change is effective immediately and will be in place for the housing lottery in Spring 2007 semester.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Dean of Students Denise Darrigrand. “The world is changing with regard to how gender is expressed. This shows that Clark is cognizant of the fact that students are coming to us with different lifestyles and that we support them.”

Darrigrand said the new policy will enable students who reside on campus to room with their friends, even if their friend happens to be of a different gender.

Clark’s housing policy has always prohibited male and female residents from living in the same room. The University does, however, allow different sex residents to live in the same suite or apartment.

First-year students Jeffrey Chang and Allison Clancy discovered this restriction after they explored their ability to living together their sophomore year. In January 2006 they approached the Residential Life and Housing Office and were told that roommates of different genders were not allowed. They discovered, however, that the administration seemed open to revising this policy.

In February, Chang conducted extensive research and prepared a 70-page proposal with a comprehensive appendix on the topic. He waged a grassroots campaign for gender blind/neutral housing on campus, and talked to student groups, leaders and faculty to garner support.

Together, he and Clancy secured 200 signatures for their proposal in just two weeks. “We found that the vast majority of Clark students supported this option,” he said. The two submitted their proposal to the administration in March and received notification from Darrigrand that it had been approved on Dec. 1.

Now, like any roommate request, the Residential Life and Housing Office will only honor requests made by both parties mutually. The choice to room with a member of a different gender will be treated just the same as a choice to room with a member of the same gender. This option is not available to first-year students.

Clark now joins other colleges and universities that have adopted gender neutral/blind housing policies including Swarthmore College, Wesleyan University, Sarah Lawrence College, Hampshire College, Bennington College and the University of Southern Maine.

Chang didn’t sit idle waiting for this policy change. This summer, he co-founded The National Student Gender Blind Campaign (NSGC) to educate and advocate for gender-inclusive policies in campuses across the country. They launched www.genderblind.org to reach out to other students working on their initiatives. The Web site serves as the only grassroots national student organization dedicated to this issue.

“The quest for gender-neutral housing at other schools has taken years, and some instances, up to a decade to reach the point we have in less than a year,” said Chang. “I am proud to say that Clark is the first and only school in the Commonwealth with a specific policy allowing members of a different sex to room together. Indeed we should also give ourselves credit for being at the vanguard of this important national movement in student life.”

Chang said that his efforts to revise Clark’s housing policy “served as a wonderful example of effective campus inclusiveness, engagement and decision-making,” and said that students, faculty, student groups, staff and administration all played a critical role in making the change happen.

Clark athletes earn NEWMAC honors

Seventeen Clark athletes have been named to the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Academic All-Conference teams. Honorees earned a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 (4.0 scale) after the 2006 spring semester, achieved second-year academic status, and were members of a varsity team for the entire season. 

Noted scholar contrasted Ethiopian, Cambodian genocides

Historian and scholar Edward Kissi presented a public lecture and discussed his new book, “Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia: Some Lessons for Comparative Theoretical Study of Genocide,” at Clark on Nov. 8. Kissi is assistant professor of Africana Studies at the University of South Florida. His book examines how social revolutions descend into targeted killing of ethnic and racial groups and the degree to which that depends on how agents of revolution acquire power and the nature of the domestic opposition they encounter.

Nunnemacher shell named in honor of former biology professor

The rowing program will name its new women's eight after former Clark professor Rudolph Fink Nunnemacher. Known as "Rudi" to his friends and "Nunnie" to students, Nunnemacher had a positive impact on Clark and his students. He served the University from 1939 to 1983 in the Biology Department, chairing the department for 18 years.

Nunnemacher made a large contribution to women's rowing. In 1944, he started one of the first women's rowing programs in the country. These women competed against the only other program in the area, Radcliffe. Nunnemacher remained part of the rowing program as a coach and mentor for many years and raced with economics professor and rowing coach F. Eugene Melder, against Clark rowers, whom they defeated on an annual basis.

The shell will be dedicated during the annual Alumni and Parents luncheon on Sunday, May 6, 2007 at noon at the Donahue Rowing Center on Lake Quinsigamond.