Trans and other non-gender conforming students still face many challenges in daily campus life, but few can be as frustrating as finding a place to live.
While Residential Life has an existing policy accommodating students on an individual basis, this semester marks the first time the process has been streamlined and publicized via the distribution of informational cards, said Maylen Aldana, associate director of Residential Life’s Student Success and Assessment.
“This will allow a student to change their name or gender … so that’s going to be extremely helpful,” Aldana said.
To seek reassignment, students are required to provide documents to the Office of the University Registrar that verify their current use of or a legal change to their preferred name and gender.
Driver’s licenses, passports and marriage licenses are among the documents the Registrar will accept. Currently, the only available options for a student wishing to change their gender are male or female.
But it hasn’t always been as accessible for former students who faced similar challenges.
“Sometimes things get pretty wild,” said 2014 alumnus Joseph Coco of their experiences at LSU. “You know, most people don’t have to question [gender] … because most people kind of fall in line with the binary, and they don’t ever think about it.”
LSU almunus and former Residential Life employee Roman Warlick spoke of his past experiences dealing with on-campus housing prior to his departure in 2013.
“I knew there were no options,” Warlick said. “I wasn’t going to be placed in male dorms, so I didn’t even try to fight that.”
Other trans and non-gender conforming students Warlick knew had decided to live off campus for their personal safety and difficulty dealing with LSU administration and housing, Warlick said.
At the time, housing at LSU was assigned based on the sex written on the birth certificate of the applicant, he said.
“I worked in Res Life, and I never heard about anything … any students being assisted with trying to get housing for their gender identity [instead of] their birth certificate gender,” Warlick said.
Aldana said her office has seen an increase of students asking for gender-neutral housing this year.
“We can make sure they are comfortable and living in a safe and comfortable place,” Aldana said. “We work with them individually … and make sure [they live at] the best place for them.”
Currently male and female are the only available gender options, but not all individuals identify as one or the other. Additional options may need to be added in the future.
“Understand that gender isn’t just men and women — it’s a whole spectrum of experiences and like identities,” Coco said. “Just do some research, be a little bit more respectful. Don’t just automatically start calling everybody ‘he’ or ‘her’ … use neutral pronouns until you find out.”

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Emily Brauner

University graduate student, Joseph Coco, opens up about current campus housing policies for transgender and non-gender binary students and a recent neutral housing proposal.