The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1 - 39

#FUUFS5IBO.PTU

. . . we are conﬁdent that
HFOEFSJODMVTJWFIPVTJOHDBOCF
thoughtfully constituted, and it can
and should prioritize and center
USBOTBOEOPOCJOBSZTUVEFOUT
$FOUFSJOHUSBOTTUVEFOUTNFBOT
we would not only focus our
UIJOLJOHBCPVUXIBUJTCFTUGPSPVS
TUVEFOUTCVUXPVMEQVUUIFJSWPJDFT
in the center and listen to them.

training that addresses gender identity and
gender justice. Ideally, training would not be
limited to residence life staff but would be
inclusive of facilities, custodial, assignments,
and business ofﬁce staff who are likely to interact with students.
Moreover, we are conﬁdent that genderinclusive housing can be thoughtfully constituted, and it can and should prioritize and
center trans* and non-binary students. Centering trans* students means we would not
only focus our thinking about what is best
for our students but would put their voices in
the center and listen to them (Marine & Catalano, 2015). We would intentionally explore
how housing can support trans* ﬂourishing.
Brighouse (2005) noted that ﬂourishing may
include, but is also more than, happiness.
Flourishing refers to the state of well-being of
individuals that is inﬂuenced by their experience of meaningful work, community, friend-

ship, personal freedom, and personal value.
Moreover, we would not only make decisions
in the best interests of trans* students' growth,
development, and ﬂourishing, but also encourage and compensate trans* students for
their insights and contributions to the conceptualization, design, and implementation
of gender-inclusive housing (Nicolazzo et al.,
2018). We would inquire with trans* students,
"What kind of housing will actually work for
you?" And when we obtained the answer, we
would make any and all needed changes. That
would require us to admit when we have made
decisions that are not ideal and admit our own
vulnerability as leaders and change agents and
then work to remedy the mistakes we have
made. This requires fearless, thoughtful interrogation of the myriad ways that genderism
pervades our thinking (Nicolazzo, 2016) and
how our strategic deployment of gender-inclusive housing has been more responsive to the
potential fears and reservations of cisgender
stakeholders, whether institutional leadership,
parents, or governing bodies, than to the wants
and needs of trans* students.
We invite housing and residence life professionals to consider the possibility of moving
beyond Gender-Inclusive Housing to GenderExpansive Housing, recognizing the political
will and support from senior leaders that is necessary for such a move (Nicolazzo, Wagner, &
Marine, 2017). How might we shift the needle
away from assuming a gender binary in our
work, from accepting uncritically the premise
that gender or sex is the way we should organize our residential spaces? We want to invite
colleagues to begin the process of questioning
whether that still makes sense, given the gender
diversity of our students and the fact that we

7 0 - 6 . &
/0 t

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1