Many residents of the first-year Trans and Non-binary Living-Learning Community (LLC) on the first floor of Simmons Hall have wondered why there is a noticeable amount of cisgender allies present on the floor who did not request to be there.

In an email from Simmons’ Office of Residence Life (ResLife) sent to first-year students in August, it was made clear that this would be happening.

“While the majority of students elected to live in the respective communities, some students were placed there to fill out the floor,” the email said. “We believe those that did not elect to live in these spaces can still benefit from the programs offered.”

Associate Director of Residential Engagement in ResLife, Marquet Houston, provided insight on the matter in an interview with the Voice. He mentioned a decline in interest towards the LLC before the year started, with less than 10 students voicing interest at summer orientation.

“I would hope that the work that we’re doing would mean that the Trans and Non-binary students can come here and not have to self-select into one floor– and that they can live wherever they want to live,” Houston said.

Houston emphasized the point that “we would never place someone on that floor who doesn’t state that they share those values and that interest” on the housing application– and that there are processes to hold students accountable for making fellow residents uncomfortable.

The floor’s Resident Advisor (RA), Kadyn Donovan, has struggled with making sure both trans and cis ally students on the floor can benefit from its programming. Donovan, a non-binary second-year student at Simmons, said they decided to be the RA for the floor because they “had a really awesome RA last year,” and “really just wanted to be that person for other first-years.” 

Donovan said that in the prior year, the same LLC did not have this many cisgender people on it, which has caused them to rethink the floor’s programming. They’ve had to face the challenge of creating events that are both aimed towards the trans residents, but also inclusive of the cisgender allies on the floor. 

“There’s not a huge trans population on campus, but I think with the right convictions, you can gather everybody together and kind of get everybody on the same page, and just create that community yourself– and I’m trying my best to do that here,” Donovan said.

Resident of the floor, Ash Curall, requested to be on the floor because they’re non-binary and “wanted a stronger sense of community.” Currall said that they were initially disappointed to find out there would be cisgender people on the floor, although they’ve turned out to be “nice, lovely people.”

“It hasn’t been an issue on an individual level, but I still take issue with it on an institutional level,” Currall said.

Though Currall didn’t request a single dorm, they weren’t given a roommate. When asking ResLife about it, they said they were told the reasoning was a lack of interest in the floor.

With students who didn’t request singles not being given roommates, Houston said there was likely someone originally assigned to that place who withdrew, decided to commute or move to another space too late in the process for someone else to take their place. 

Lyn Santiago, a non-binary student who requested to be on the LLC, was instead put on another floor with their requested roommate (who did not ask to be on the LLC). Santiago is content not being on the floor, but said they do think about how nice it would be to be around people with shared experiences.

“I feel like it would be better if everyone was with the people that they want to be with,” Santiago said.

For students who requested to be on the floor and were not placed on it, Houston noted that could mean other accommodations for the student were prioritized, or that another student was placed on the requested floor instead.

Saia Rivera is an ally who was placed on the floor, despite not requesting to be placed there. 

As someone who has a “strong stance” with the LGBTQ+ community, Rivera communicated with ResLife to make sure she wasn’t taking anyone’s space, and was comforted to be told that she wasn’t.

“I wanted to make sure everyone who identifies as that or would want to live on this floor got that opportunity,” Rivera said.