Luxury college dorm décor has become all the rage in back-to-school TikTok videos boasting designer remakes of the old school bed-in-a-bag, showcased recently in a Washington Post feature. While most parents are complaining about tuition increases, others are raising their own college costs with top-to-bottom dorm room makeovers. One enterprising mom of an incoming University of Georgia freshman proudly tours her million-plus viewers through a frilly double that leaves no room for a lipstick smudge. If this style is a taste of home, then comfort her daughter will find. Otherwise, it could be a shock when mom returns to campus for parents’ weekend, only to find Starbucks stains on the lily-white sofa and dirty running clothes tossed on the bed.
What this focus on the frill doesn’t tell you is the reality of what some college girls are confronting as they prepare to move into their college dormitories. As an advisor for Concerned Women for America, which focuses on protecting the rights and dignity of women and girls on the basis of our female sex, I was contacted last week about a case that exposes the underbelly of today’s college dorm experiences.
College policies can result in women being assigned to share campus housing with students declaring they are “women” or “nonbinary,” but are male. Such was the panic experienced by two families sending their daughters to Indiana University (IU). The girls who had requested to share a dorm room on campus were informed a few days before their move-in date that a third roommate had been assigned to their room. The women learned that the student who claimed a “nonbinary” identity was, in fact, male. In the application process, both incoming female students indicated they would not be willing to share a room with a person of the opposite sex (yes, this was an actual question on the application). The IU-Indianapolis housing office apparently had other ideas.
This set-up is an untenable situation for these young women. IU’s housing policy even warns of its intent to reject any challenges: “The university makes all assignments without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or veteran status and rejects all requests for changes of assignment based on such.”
Notice the omission of “sex,” instead focusing on “sexual orientation.” Title IX regulations explicitly allow for colleges to separate housing on the basis of sex for the very reason that women should be assured of single-sex campus facilities. But campus policies that exploit federal law in practice can lead to the panic and anxiety experienced by these incoming freshman women.
For years now, colleges have bent over backward to encourage and accommodate the feelings of students declaring queer identity. The possibility of this result happening for women at IU and other campuses across the country is higher than you think. University of Michigan’s “gender inclusive” housing and the University of Minnesota's “gender open” housing are other examples of policies that conflate male and female sex with a boundless understanding of “gender identity” that can easily result in roommate assignments pairing female students with biological males.
Indiana University is not subtle about its agenda for the kind of culture it wants to promote with Queer Life at IU. Its LGBTQ+ Culture Center promises “a safe and comfortable place to live.” It showcases a “comprehensive guide to transitioning,” complete with financial aid available for students desiring cross sex hormones. Adam may enter college as a freshman, but graduate four years later as Eve.
When I was alerted to the plight of these two young women excited to start their college adventure, I was mad. Before stepping foot on campus, they were forced into a direct confrontation with their chosen college for being unwilling to compromise their dignity and privacy rights as women. It could have been a glaring error on the part of the housing office. But that’s no excuse. Why would a midwestern university in a state that had just enacted a law assuring college female athletes of their rights to their own sports and locker rooms be allowed to trample the rights of female students in this way? It should not. College policies favoring the promotion and perpetuation of a cultural obsession with “gender identity” need to change.
Thankfully, through a supportive network providing counsel and the courage of these families, a dorm room situation that should never have happened in the first place was resolved. I hope these young ladies are now having fun decorating their room in whatever style their hearts desire.
Luxury dorm rooms may be the latest trend in campus comfort, but what every college woman really needs is the assurance that her school of choice will be working just as hard to provide her a “safe and comfortable place to live” that fully respects her female dignity and identity.
Doreen Denny is senior advisor for Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, and is celebrating the return of its Young Women for America leaders to their college campuses this fall.
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