Gender-neutral housing supporters to create taskforce

Columbia College Student Council members who had supported the proposed gender-neutral housing policy are looking to create a taskforce to push it through next year, it was announced at a CCSC meeting Sunday.

According to 2011 class vice president Sean Udell, he and others who had been involved in promoting what they are now calling "Open Housing"—including CCSC vice president of policy Sarah Weiss, CC '10—hope to include students and administrators in the group. They hope to meet with Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs Theresa Martinez and Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger in mid-April, and plan to have a taskforce in place to discuss policy and work on a proposal over the summer.

Udell said they plan to roll out a proposal by Sept. 6 and present it to Columbia College Dean Moody-Adams and School of Engineering and Applied Science Feniosky Pena-Mora by Sept. 20.

This time around, Udell said he and other supporters are “looking to consult a lot of different students and administrators on the policy, not that we didn’t do that in the first round.”