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A new safe place for students at the University of Saskatchewan.
The U of S has rolled out a new housing project to support self-identified queer students.
Dr. Simonne Horwitz is a history professor, and co-chair of the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity.
She said they’ve been working towards a more inclusive campus for a long time. Each year the Committee takes on a new project. Last year it was the Gender Neutral washrooms.
Dr. Horwitz said their research and groups that were involved made this years decision easier than expected. She said the idea was simple.
“Have a space where our queer students and (where) they could be themselves.”
In September, the pilot project will begin where 12 students will move into a section of College Quarters, kicking off the queer housing.
She said there wasn’t complaints, but suggestions to push this project to the forefront. She said some of the students lived out of residence due to not being comfortable with other students being accepting them for who they were.
“We heard that a lot from students who were too scared, or didn’t feel that they would have someone that would understand them on campus. This was a response to that, to say to all students that res life is not just for certain students, but students from all different backgrounds.”
Dr. Horwitz said this is not the first housing project out there. There is one similar at the University of Regina, but the difference is it being a group of apartments, with shared washrooms that students live together in.
“Students who are in queer housing are not segregated in any way from the rest of the residences. They have their room and their safe place, but they are totally integrated into res life as a whole.”
Moving forward, they are hoping to get as much feedback as possible to grow the project to the best suitable for the students.
Dr. Horwitz says that keeping them as comfortable as they can be, while going through their classes and every-day lives is the ultimate goal of the new project.
