EIS 500: Position Presentation

1. EIS 500: Position Presentation Hollie Butcher and Katie Mey Western Illinois University

2. Position • Institutions of higher education should provide gender-inclusive options for on-campus housing in order to provide the same benefits and opportunities to all students living on campus.

3. Definitions • Gender Inclusive Option: “…housing option is open to all students. It provides options for transgender students, students in the process of discovering their gender identity, gay or bisexual students, students who feel uncomfortable with rooming with members of the same sex, intersex students who do not wish to be identified by any sex, and students who feel that they would be more comfortable with a roommate of a different gender.” (University of Oregon: Gender inclusive housing option, 2012). • Social Support: “social support refers to the functional content of relationships such as the perceived or actual support received.” (Wilcox, 2005, p 708) • Campus climate: overall sense of the environment one experiences as falling on a range from welcoming and supportive of something (identity, view point, etc.)- in this case, LGBTQUIA individuals- to hostile. (adapted from Evans, 2002)

4. Benefits Of Living On Campus • There is a broad body of literature suggesting that there are many benefits to living on campus • Increases in retention, engagement, friend networks, GPA, satisfaction, etc. to highlight a few. • de Araujo, P., & Murray, J. (2010). Channels for improved performance from living on campus. American Journal of Business Education, 3(12), 57-64. • de Araujo, P., & Murray, J. (2010) ''Estimating the effects of dormitory living on student performance'', Economics Bulletin, 1(30), 866-878. • Pascarella, E.T., Terenzini, P.T. (1991) How college life affects college students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass • Wilcox, P., Winn, S., & Fyvie-Gauld, M. (2005). "It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people": The role of social support in the first-year experience of higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 30(6), 707-722.

5. Social Support • Studies provide support for the connection between some of the benefits of living on campus- persistence and retention- and social integration. • As students transition to higher education settings they struggle to find where they fit in. Students report that making compatible friends that develop into good friendships allowed them to develop a new principal support network away from home and family. These support networks appear to provide buffers from stressful situations related to adjustment as well as support when stressful situations are experienced. (Wilcox, P., Winn, S., & Fyvie-Gauld, M., 2005) • Social support is linked to the ability to connect with peers/find support in the environment

6. Negative Effects of Hostile Climate • However, studies also show that a perception of the campus climate as hostile to a student's identity have negative effects on their academic experience, development, institutional commitment and persistence, among other things. • Statistical analysis indicated that the perception of prejudice and discrimination…has a greater direct effect on the institutional commitment African American students versus White students. (Carberea & Nora, 1999).

7. Students who identify as trans* or gender non-conforming are subject to hostility and discrimination and therefore likely perceive the environment as hostile compared with cis gendered folks. • Research by Zapata (2000) found that LGB students have report less of a sense of community on campus than their heterosexual peers (Evans & Broido, 2002) • “Eddy and Forney’s (2000) summary of research on campus climate indicates that many college students report negative attitudes towards LGB students and topics, that LGB students. For instance, 18.9% of entering students (and close to 30% of the men) at one large public institution reported no interest in having a lesbian or gay friend (Mohr & Sedlacek, 2000). (Evans, 2002, p 31)

8. Perception Differential • If there is a perception of the campus climate as hostile, negative, or unwelcoming of a student's identity, those groups who are more likely to experience negativity related to these identities are more likely to perceive these environments as hostile. • LaRocca& Kromrey (1999) conducted an experiment with 296 male and 295 female undergraduate and graduate students, in which the students were presented with vignettes to read. After reading the vignette, the students were asked to complete a survey, and a seven-point semantic differential was used to measure the degree of perceived sexual harassment. Female research participants perceived the the scenario as more sexually harassing than male participants (F(1, 587)= 36.99, p<.01) (LaRocca & Kromrey, 1999).

9. Benefits of Welcoming Environment & Positive Perception • “Positive perceptions...were associated with a lack of negative events as well as the experience of positive ones, such as hearing people on the floor confront homophobic comments.” (Evans, 2002, p 35) • “Interactions with roommates, student resident assistants, professional residence life staff, and other students in the hall also influenced students’ perceptions of the climate. Because of the close contact students have with their roommates, the extent of support they received from these women was a critical factor in their overall perception of the fall. Those students whose perceptions were positive had actively suppotive roommates who cared about them, introduced them to other LGB people, and welcomed the students’ visiting girlfriends. Those women with more negative attitudes about their halls had less accepting roommates who were distant, held heterosexist attitudes, and made negative comments.” (Evans, 2002, p 35) • The women in the study who held positive views about the climate of the residence hall attributed this, in part, to active confrontation of negative and homophobic comments and behavior by staff. Also, those who reported a positive view of climate noted the presence of visible signs of support such as advertising for LGB programming and events in their halls. (Evans, 2002)

10. Addendum: Limitations • More empirical research needs to be done • Although the framework of an argument can be made by lining up empirical evidence related to raced and gendered perception of campus climate, and the benefits of living on campus for students, there is little to no research, let alone large scale studies that lend themselves to generalization and quant analysis, on this topic. Rankin especially notes this, but others do as well.

11. References Cabrera, A. F., & nora, A. (1999). Campus racial climate and the adjustment of students to college. Journal of Higher Education, 70(2), 134-160 de Araujo, P., & Murray, J. (2010). Channels for improved performance from living on campus. American Journal of Business Education, 3(12), 57-64. de Araujo, P., & Murray, J. (2010) ''Estimating the effects of dormitory living on student performance'', Economics Bulletin, 1(30), 866-878. D’Emilio, J. (1990). The campus environment for gay and lesbian life. Academe, 76(1), 16-19. Evans, N. J., Broido, E.M. (2002). The experiences of lesbian and bisexual women in college residence halls: Implications for addressing homophobia and heterosexism. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 6(3/4), 29-42. LaRocca, M. A., & Kromrey, J. D. (1999). The perception of sexual harassment in higher education: Impact of gender and attractiveness. Sex Roles, 40(11/12), 921-940 Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (1980). Student-faculty and student-peer relationships as mediators of the structural effects of undergraduate residence arrangement. The Journal of Educational Research, 73(6), 344-353. Pascarella, E.T., Terenzini, P.T. (1991) How college life affects college students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Rankin, S. (2003). Campus climate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people: A national perspective. Washington, DC.: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. Rankin, S. R. (2006). Lgbtqa students on campus: Is higher education making the grade?. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues In Education, 3(2/3), 111-117. University of oregon: Gender inclusive housing option. (2012). Retrieved from http://housing.uoregon.edu/reshalls/gender_inclusive.php Waldo, C. R. (1998). Out on campus: Sexual orientation and academic climate in a university context. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26(5), 745-774. Wilcox, P., Winn, S., & Fyvie-Gauld, M. (2005). "It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people": The role of social support in the first-year experience of higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 30(6), 707-722.