Gender Inclusive Housing

First-year students and returning students of any legal sex or gender identity are eligible to participate in Gender Inclusive Housing. Students must be 18 years old to participate. Students who are under 18 years old may participate with written permission from a parent or guardian.

To sign up for Gender Inclusive Housing, all individuals or group members must select “Yes” on the Gender Inclusive Housing page of the housing application at MyHomeAtPenn.

Once you select Gender Inclusive Housing, that selection remains active from year to year, unless you request a change by contacting the Housing Occupancy Office at living@upenn.edu. Selecting Gender Inclusive Housing does not change your legal sex or gender identity in the Student Registration System.

First-year students who sign up for Gender Inclusive Housing will be assigned housing without regard to the legal sex or gender identity of roommates. The Housing Occupancy Office will assign you to a College House and room, taking into consideration the preferences you list on your housing application. If you are assigned to a shared bedroom or to a suite, your roommates or suitemates will be other first-year students who also signed up for Gender Inclusive Housing. If there are no vacancies in Gender Inclusive Housing, the Housing Occupancy Office will reach out to you to discuss other options.

Since returning undergraduates go through Room Selection in a roommate group, all roommates in the group must sign up for Gender Inclusive Housing to be assigned to the same room. The housing system will not allow students of different legal sexes to be assigned to the same room unless all students in the group are participating in Gender Inclusive Housing.

During Room Selection, students who are participating in Gender Inclusive Housing may only select beds in completely vacant rooms or in partially occupied rooms with other students who are participating in Gender Inclusive Housing. If your group does not completely fill the suite, the Housing Occupancy Office will fill the remaining beds with other students who have requested Gender Inclusive Housing, including in shared bedrooms.

If a vacancy occurs in a Gender Inclusive Housing room, the remaining roommates may request to have a specific student fill the vacancy. The request must be made in writing to the Housing Occupancy Office at living@upenn.edu within 24 hours of the vacancy occurring.

If a specific roommate is not requested to fill the vacancy, the Housing Occupancy Office reserves the right to fill the empty bed:

1. The Housing Occupancy Office will place another student who has requested Gender Inclusive Housing in the open bed, including in shared bedrooms.
2. If a new roommate cannot be identified, the Housing Occupancy Office may require the remaining residents to relocate to another room. A matching room type is not guaranteed. For example, if three students select a triple apartment, and one student cancels their housing assignment, the remaining two students may be relocated to a double apartment or to another Gender Inclusive Housing quad apartment with two vacancies.

The College Houses have a variety of different bathroom configurations.

In Harnwell, Harrison, Rodin, Radian, Gutmann, Du Bois, Gregory, Lauder, and the Mayer Hall portion of Stouffer College House, each suite has its own bathroom just for the suite’s residents. In Fisher Hassenfeld, Riepe, Ware, Kings Court English, and the Stouffer Hall portion of Stouffer College House, residents use shared bathrooms located in the hallways. Bathroom designations (male, female, or all gender) are made by the (G)RA each year in consultation with the residents.

In Hill, residents use shared bathrooms located in the hallways. Hill bathrooms are all gender and laid out as a row of individually locking toilet stalls on one side of the room and a row of individually locking shower stalls on the other side. The doors for both the toilet stalls and shower stalls extend all the way down to the floor.