While many universities across the nation are offering gender-neutral housing where men and women can live in the same room, Penn State does not have plans to join the trend.

Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and Dartmouth College are among the universities offering co-ed rooming arrangements; however, Penn State Spokesman Bill Mahon said there has never been a request for co-ed rooming at Penn State.

Martin Redman, dean of Resident Life at Dartmouth College, said the college will be offering co-ed rooms in the fall in a special living option where students can discuss such issues as gender, sexuality, heterosexual and homosexual issues and discrimination. He said though the housing option is available to everyone, it also acts as a safe environment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) people.

"We have 300 students living off campus, where their landlords don't care about who lives in the same apartment," Redman said. "We are basing our living arrangements around this. These people are adults, and we figure that they can manage living together in gender-neutral areas."

Dartmouth is also offering gender-neutral suites in which a combination of male and female inhabitants can live together in a two- or three-bedroom suite.

Christina Swomley (senior-psychology), a member in the Penn State LGBTA community, said co-ed rooms could be used at University Park as a "safe place where students with similar backgrounds and beliefs can live without worries of discrimination or discomfort with their current living arrangement."

Swomley went on to say that a co-ed dorm room could offer a place for a biologically born male who considers themselves female.

"[They] may feel more comfortable living with a female, the gender that they choose to associate with," Swomley said.

Conal Carr, assistant director of housing and resident life, said co-ed rooming arrangements are only available through White Course Apartments. Graduate students who are married or have families get first priority.

According to Penn State's housing Web site, co-ed undergraduate housing is only available in some dorms by floor, but there are not any options in place for students of the opposite sex to share a room.

Carr said that the issue of gender-neutral housing for undergraduates at the university has never come
up in the housing department.

"I think with the transition as a freshman you wouldn't be able to handle it, so it should be offered maybe as an upper classman," Andy Belin (sophomore-information sciences and technology) said. "I have no problem rooming with girls. It might be awkward at first, but as the year went on it'd be better."