Princeton Signs Off On Hot, Sweaty, Roommate Orgies
This week, Princeton got a lot less heteronormative—even if certain students still can’t pronounce “heteronormative”—with the introduction of a gender-neutral housing option.
Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson has confirmed that, this spring, Princeton upperclass students may lottery in mixed gender groups for apartment-style suites in Spelman Hall. Gender-neutral, you say? Then where’s the news from Janet Genital-erson? (Rim shot for feminism!)
This initiative was conceived primarily for the benefit of LGBT students uncomfortable with traditional housing options. Meanwhile, campus religious fundamentalists are trying to decide whether they’re angrier that Princeton’s doing gays a favor, or that they’re letting heterosexuals have all the dirty premarital roommate sex they want.
Sophomore Emily Rutherford first broke the news on her Campus Progress blog Wednesday. The Daily Princetonian printed its own coverage on Thursday, with further details as to the program’s restrictions:
“[Undergraduate Life Committee chair Arthur Levy ‘10] said that at least half of the members of mixed-gender draw groups — like all Spelman draw groups — must be unaffiliated with an eating club.”
Hmm. Something tells us that the Princeton students most concerned with genderqueer-friendly housing won’t be those puking on the floor of T.I. this weekend.
After the jump, no more dick jokes—we promise.
Princeton is the last of the Ivy League schools to offer gender-neutral housing, with the notable exception of Yale—but it’s okay, Yale’s probably doing something really important in the meantime. Janet Sexual-organ-erson (sorry, we lied) explained the logic underlying this decision to The Prince:
“The choices…reflect the same options that our students will face as young adults when they graduate.”
Right, because when you graduate, you live in a wacky sitcom world where four quirky twentysomethings can cohabit a large apartment with no need for full-time jobs. Dickerson continues:
“Our goal is to provide a variety of housing as well as dining options for our students so that everyone may feel that they have an array of excellent lifestyle choices.”
Um, where’d that come from? Is she suggesting there’s going to be gender-neutral dining, too? Gives a new meaning to the term “sausagefest.”
Well played, Princeton. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Ten years from now, Spelman could be donated new wings named after the double-legacy babies conceived there.
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October 20th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I thought you guys already fired Molly Fitzpatrick after the Swine Flu story. Someone should really put this blogger out to pasture. Bad writer, bad story, not funny.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Lol are you serious
October 20th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
this is so unfunny, i’m almost speechless. your riff on janet dickerson’s name is something kindergartners wouldn’t find funny. also, none of your snark makes any sense because you have no conception or knowledge of princeton’s policies and student life. the dining options refer to the possibility of taking your meals at: an eating club, a dining hall, a shared meal plan, a co-op, and being independent. please do some research before you write! it’s for your own good!
October 20th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
As someone who isn’t a kindergartner, I thought this was, in fact, very funny. Well done.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
All the IvyGate editors should be fired. There’s so much shit going on at the schools, but they’re not reporting any of it. They’re not even asking for pics/submissions. Didn’t cover Bladderball, probably will overlook Dartmouth homecoming, I’m sure some Cornell kids have kicked the bucket. But all we get are some Harvard/Princeton stories.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
News Flash: No one cares about how much Dartmouth drinks. Everyone else got over the “I drink a lot so I’m cool!” thing in high school.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
this is horrible. seriously guys, I love reading you, but this…
October 20th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
“Everyone else got over the ‘I drink a lot I’m so cool!’ thing in high school.”
Completely false.
Homecoming should be covered though, at least arrests in relation to past years. Maybe an entertaining police blotter every now and then? This is boring and sporadic.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
As someone who initially got the ball rolling on and helped design the Princeton proposal, I have a major correction to your coverage. Snark aside, Princeton’s GNH policy is not intended “primarily for the benefit of LGBT students.” LGBT students are a minority of the population that GNH affects at any college or university, just as they are a minority of the population overall. While GNH might be of particular interest to LGBT students because of how awkward same-gender roommates can be for them, GNH is great for everyone. VP Dickerson and everyone on the Undergraduate Life Committee definitely constructed the GNH policy with the idea that everyone (regardless of sexual orientation) could make their own adult choices about the gender of their roommates, just like you get to do when you’re not in college. This is not an LGBT issue, and it would be unfair to ghettoize it–it’s a universal campus life issue.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
looool what year do the calendars at princeton say it is right now? a BOY and a GIRL living together?? WHY I NEVER
October 20th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
“This is not an LGBT issue, and it would be unfair to ghettoize it–it’s a universal campus life issue.”–Emily Rutherford
So, Emily, if it’s an LGBT issue, then that means its been “ghettoized”? Do you really think the LGBT students are in the ghetto? Maybe you should apologize for your highly offensive and insensitive comments.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Ghetto
2 : a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
I’m not sure how using the term ghettoize is offensive or insensitive. LGBT students (not all of them, I know) do end up socializing and spending free time together on the 2nd floor of Frist probably mainly because of social pressures at school.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Cautioning against “ghettoizing” an issue — i.e. suggesting that it not be seen as applying only to one particular group — does not suggest that LGBT students are “in the ghetto” in any pejorative sense. For example, many writers have cautioned against “ghettoizing” issues like sexual harassment — i.e. seeing them as only applying to certain groups of people rather than to the larger society. That’s the sense in which I read Emily’s comment.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
How is this a big deal? Schools (albeit more liberal) like Brown and Wesleyan have had this policy for years…
October 21st, 2009 at 10:06 am
Golly, BROWN, has anyone ever told you how cool and progressive you are? It just knocks my socks right off. You really should do some missionary work in those stuffy backwaters of Trenton and New Haven and enlighten the natives about this kind of thing. Imagine! A different moral outlook on life! Immature children, all of them!
October 21st, 2009 at 1:40 pm
cant wait to see the spike in campus abortion and pregnancy rates…
October 21st, 2009 at 7:29 pm
^ Oh please. While it may not solely be an LGBT issue, I’m sure that’s who it will affect most. I doubt the number of straight, co-ed rooms will rise very much. We have gender neutral housing and I don’t know of any straight co-ed roommates. And straights who do have gender neutral housing, unless they’re in a relationship, probably aren’t going to end up having sex–you think they wouldn’t realize the consequences of 1) having sex with a friend and 2) having to live with them afterward? It could be messy for couples who decide to share a room and break up (but I’m sure even they know that’s a bad idea from the start), but really? People aren’t going to start fucking like rabbits. Especially at Princeton.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 am
hey this is cc sabathia from the new york yankees. just thought i’d say i thought this article by molly fitzpatrick was in fact extremely amusing, dawg.
go yanks,
boss hog
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Holy crap! CC reads IvyGate?! I knew I should have worn my Yankees hat to this comment page…
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Needless to say, there are many phenomena that are ignored, such as the ubiquity of hyperbolic discounting. ,
October 24th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Please tell me you’re working on a Dartmouth Homecoming post. PIctures can be had full size here:http://thedartmouth.com/2009/10/23/news/livecoverage
October 25th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Speaking of which, Columbia just lost to Dartmouth. That’s, Dartmouth of 17-0 fame. No story? New fucking editors, please.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Seriously Ivygate. Not only do your posts now suck, but we have had two posts in the last two weeks. WHAT THE FUCK. Even if your posts are snoozeworthy, or even embarrassing, at lease post. PLEASE for the love of god post SOMETHING.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
bunch of ivy league resume padders be running this site. ’tis a shame.