Maryland- Prince Frederick Hall will be gender-neutral

[SandraJane]

THE DIAMONDBACK
The University of Maryland's Independent Student Newspaper



Prince Frederick Hall will be gender-neutral


Dorm expected to open fall 2014



by Teddy Amenabar | Posted on September 11, 2012


http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/campus/article_9b6bb3bc-fbcc-11e1-8f93-001a4bcf6878.html



Prince Frederick hall, a dorm being constructed near Van Munching Hall, will build on gender-neutral housing options featured elsewhere on the campus.        Charlie DeBoyace/The Diamondback


While the university has renovated some buildings in recent years to expand gender-neutral housing options, more students will be able to choose a dorm specially designed to meet their needs by 2014, Department of Resident Life officials said.

Prince Frederick Hall will be gender-neutral, Resident Life Associate Director Cindy Felice said during a South Campus community meeting last week, an accommodation that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community on the campus said are necessary to give students safe and comfortable living environments. The dorm will include arrangements first featured on the campus in Oakland Hall, while also offering gender-neutral bathrooms on every floor.

"It just gives you some different options that we went into from the onset," Felice said.

[suzifrommd]

Not sure how this is so innovative. When I went to college in 1979 my dorm was coed and we decided all the bathrooms would be unisex. The protocol involved knocking on the door and declaring who you were. If someone inside didn't want you to come in, they'd say so. Worked pretty well, though it freaked the parents out when they came to visit.