RHA unanimously voted in support of Spectrum, a proposed thematic community designed to house those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning, as well as allies to those who identify as LGBT.
“The purpose is to limit some of the issues that some of our students face in terms of roommates and in terms of discrimination, but also to push them further in exploring their own gender and sexual identities,” said Mat Jones, one of the creators of the proposal for the Spectrum thematic community.
Twelve of 14 Big Ten schools currently support similar thematic ?communities, Jones said.
In fact, IU and Purdue are currently the only Big Ten schools that do not support such thematic communities.
“Across the country, schools have started to create living communities that are specifically for students that identify with various gender and sexual ?identities,” he said.
If approved, the thematic community will be housed on the first floor of Teter Quad-Wissler, Jones said.
“From researching and talking to students, Teter is one of the more accepting communities on our campus,” he said.
It will also have space for up to 29 residents, ?Connor said.
If successful, however, Jones said he hopes the thematic community would expand in numbers and become a living-learning community.
“We’re more worried about not having enough space than about having too much space, but for the first year we wanted to make sure that it was filled,” he said.
RHA also discussed the possibility of adding Chick-fil-A to the list of dining locations accessible through meal points.
Sodexo, a food services corporation, will no longer manage the dining locations situated in Herman B Wells library, Patrick Connor, executive director of Residential Programs and Services, said.
As a result, those dining locations currently situated in the library will begin accepting meal points as payment.
Because a new Chick-fil-A location will appear in the Indiana Memorial Union next academic year, Connor said he is interested in whether or not RHA believes a second ?Chick-fil-A location should remain in Wells.
Though the Chick-fil-A location in the IMU will not be added to the list of dining locations accepting meal points, the location in Wells would.
“Chick-fil-A will be on campus,” he said. “The question is, will RPS consider Chick-fil-A as one of the possible franchises that we want to bring in,” ?Connor said.
Concern exists regarding whether keeping a Chick-fil-A location in Wells, and therefore adding that Chick-fil-A to the list of dining locations accessible through meal points, would express IU’s support for Chick-fil-A and the company’s controversial stances on LGBT ?issues.
“We have the political side of it and the financial side of it,” Connor said. “I know that on a regular basis, we get the question, ‘Why can’t my student use their meal plan to get Chick-Fil-A?’”
In a 9-to-18 vote, RHA voted against keeping a Chick-fil-A location in Wells.
Finally, RHA unanimously voted in support of additional gender-blind housing and in support of RHA taking responsibility of publicizing gender-blind housing.
Gender-blind housing, which allows residents to live with members of the opposite sex, currently exists in unfurnished and furnished apartment-style housing.
Current apartments that offer gender-blind housing include Willkie Hall, Union Street Center and Hillcrest Apartments.
It does not currently exist in non-apartment-style housing.
As a result, gender-blind housing is not ?available to freshmen.
If approved, gender-blind housing would exist on a Teter Quad co-ed floor, making it available to freshmen next academic year.
