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UW-Eau Claire Housing Offers Rainbow Floor For LGBTQ Students

Campus Is Latest In UW-System To Create Inclusive Housing Options For LGBTQ Students

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UW-Eau Claire foot bridge
Photo courtesy of UW-Eau Claire.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is the state’s latest campus to create LGBTQ-specific student housing. Campus officials say creating a more comfortable and inclusive environment at home will help students succeed in the classroom.

This fall, UW-Eau Claire will open a “Rainbow Floor” in one of the campus’ Kalgaard Towers dormitories.

Gender & Sexuality Resource Center director Christopher Jorgenson said that students entering into housing contracts were asked if they were interested in an LGBTQ inclusive living community and the 72 spaces available on the Rainbow Floor are already filled.

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“Because it was so popular we maxed out capacity quite quickly and so now we kind of have, like, an overflow situation where we’re putting students who wanted to be on that floor on the floor above,” said Jorgenson. “So, at least they can be within close proximity of it.”

Jorgenson said the campus is already having discussions about expanding the available options to LGBTQ students in the future.

According to UW-Eau Claire’s housing website, students interested in living on the Rainbow Floor must commit to maintaining an “inclusive and welcoming living environment that is free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, assigned sex, sexual orientation, or any other form of identity.”

Jorgenson said the idea is that the Rainbow Floor will help students reduce stressors outside of the classroom so they can focus on academics, but it has the added benefit of helping the university address any particular needs they may have.

“We don’t know who they are when they come here so to offer a living community where we have a better understanding at least of those that are on that floor it allows us to connect quicker,” Jorgenson said.

UW-Eau Claire isn’t the first state campus to offer an inclusive living community. UW-Stout officials say they’ve offered designated LGBTQ student housing since 2011. UW-Milwaukee, UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse, UW-Green Bay and UW-Oshkosh have similar housing arrangements.

In an interview with WPR, UW-Milwaukee associate university housing director Kari Dawson said the campus had 14 students in it’s inclusive housing program in 2013. That number had grown to 73 in the 2018-2019 school year. Dawson said instead of a dedicated floor in a residence hall, students select preferences when applying for student housing and the university matches them with students with similar preferences in suites for three to five residents.

“So, we don’t have a designated floor or wing but anyone who is approved we work with that student and their contract preferences for room type to pair them together so they can be in any of our buildings,” said Dawson.

UW-Stout is in the process of renovating its North Hall dormitory and Campus Housing Director Kathy Baker told WPR there will be a LGBTQ inclusive community on a floor with a capacity of 98 students when it opens this fall.

“For me, I was used to seeing it many years ago on the West Coast and it’s apparently happening more here now,” said Baker. “So, I think we may be playing a little bit of a game of catchup in growing these kinds of programs because they definitely exist on the coastal areas.”

Baker echoed the sentiment of colleagues at other UW campuses that creating safe and inclusive housing options will help students throughout their college careers.

“If whatever their issues are outside of the classroom are not being dealt with then they’re not going to be successful because their minds are not going to be able to focus on the academic side of their lives. So, in housing we do a lot of that support,” Baker said.