As of this academic year, UTD no longer offers mixed-gender housing to incoming students. The change has been rolled out quietly, with the choice to opt in removed from housing application forms and brief emails sent to students concerned about the removal.
Mixed-gender housing — also known as gender-inclusive housing — started in 2017 in an effort to make LGBTQ+ students feel safer and more supported on campus. According to Matt Winser, former director of the Galerstein Gender Center, it was the first housing policy of its kind in the University of Texas system. While students in traditional housing are given only male or only female roommates to create single-gender dorms and apartment units, students who opt into inclusive housing are assigned roommates irrespective of gender. This creates mixed-gender dorms and units, which appeared in Housing’s system as a “neutral” or third gender.
As of publication, University Housing has not sent out any official mass communication about gender-inclusive housing being rolled back. Animation and games freshman Maxwell Reed was unaware of the change until applying for a University Village apartment for next school year.
“Me and my friends had made this plan to all live together, but we are transgender in different ways,” Reed said. “My friend made a roommate group, and I went to try and join it, and it said that the gender requirements could not be fulfilled. And this was so surprising to me because mixed-gender housing has been offered for the upperclassmen before.”
In a Feb. 17 email to Reed, a representative of UTD housing said the 2025-2026 school year was the last time first-year students could opt into inclusive housing, and the current school year was the last time non-first years could opt into inclusive housing. According to the email, the change is because of operational constraints because there are only enough mixed-gender beds for students already enrolled in the inclusive housing program.
It’d be nice if I got an email before I started the housing process saying [gender-inclusive housing was] no longer available, which would have been disheartening, but it would have been better than finding it out on my own…
— Maddie, professional communication and digital media studies freshman
Maddie, a professional communication and digital media studies freshman, said she came to UTD in large part because it offered gender-inclusive housing. When she toured campus last January, her tour guide mentioned inclusive housing as an option for incoming freshmen. But when she applied for first-year housing, University Housing said inclusive options were not available anymore.
“That was very surprising and had to require a lot of fixing on my end to adjust my plan,” Maddie said. “It’d be nice if I got an email before I started the housing process saying it’s no longer available, which would have been disheartening, but it would have been better than finding it out on my own by emailing probably the summer intern working there and just finding that out.”
Reed said he spoke to a housing supervisor about his discomfort with traditional housing, which assigns roommates based on a student’s legal gender within UTD’s system. Unlike one’s listed gender identity, which students can change freely via the Galaxy portal, there is no clear path for students to change their legal gender away from their assigned sex at birth at UTD. Reed’s legal gender would force him to room with only women next school year.
“First of all, this is just blatant transphobia, because at least if you’re not going to have mixed-gender housing, you should offer the correct gender to those who are transgender,” Reed said. “But second of all, my worry is the roommates who are going to have to live with, say, trans people are going to be uncomfortable, because I’m incredibly masculine in my presentation and these people didn’t have the option to sign up for mixed-gender housing. And the other thing that causes discomfort is that it puts trans students in danger because of the exceptionally high assault rates with trans people, and specifically the high sexual assault rates of living on campus.”
Rather than having an integrated program to help us out, it felt more that [they gave us] a key card under the table to get us a room.
— Maddie
Maddie found two other freshman transgender women in a similar predicament as herself by asking around in the UTD PRIDE Discord server. The three spoke to Housing over the summer and were able to dorm together this academic year.
“I’m very hopeful that the Housing Office was willing to work with us for that because we weren’t all in the same [Living Learning Community], I had swap out honors housing and stuff,” Maddie said. “I’m completely happy with my roommates … but I would still much prefer that we didn’t have to go through this big process … The Housing Office was very helpful, but it was just one person at the Housing Office. And so rather than having an integrated program to help us out, it felt more that [they gave us] a key card under the table to get us a room.”
We will still work with students to find a supportive living environment, but that now will be on a case-by-case basis.
— Matt Grief, associate vice president of Student Affairs
An email sent late last month to students renewing their gender-inclusive housing units for next year said Housing “may need to consolidate” mixed-gender units. Students in units eligible for consolidation were given the option to stay in their current renewed apartments, which would become single-gender to match their “birth gender” next year, or move apartments to continue living in mixed-gender housing next year. Mixed-gender units will still exist on campus, per the email, but only for students already enrolled in the inclusive housing program.
Abbad Hoda, healthcare studies senior and Student Government’s residential affairs chair, spoke with Matt Grief, associate vice president of Student Affairs, about the rollback. According to Grief, mixed-gender housing experienced ongoing vacancies over multiple years, resulting in empty spaces Housing could not fill despite the hundreds-long waitlist of students desiring on-campus housing. Mixed-gender housing ultimately became unsustainable, he said.
“The decision to discontinue new opt-ins to mixed-gender housing beginning fall 2025 was not made casually,” Grief said in an email to Hoda. “We are committed to supporting students within the available assignment framework. If there are adjustments within a student’s assigned unit that would make a student more comfortable, we are willing to facilitate those conversations … We will still work with students to find a supportive living environment, but that now will be on a case-by-case basis.”
The fact that they have given no explanation … makes me feel that the university is not respecting who I am as a student.
— Maddie
The lack of mass communication from University Housing left students to find out about the rollback from one another. According to Maddie, multiple other students learned about the rollback only after she posted in the PRIDE Discord server searching for potential roommates. And screenshots of Reed’s email chain with Housing have been passed between students wondering why mixed-gender housing is no longer an option.
“The fact that they have given no explanation as to why they have to stop … is very disheartening and makes me feel that the university is not respecting who I am as a student,” Maddie said.
UTD’s 2017 inclusive housing debut was part of a broader set of programs and policies promoting diversity that, together, gained UTD national recognition for being one of the most LGBTQ-friendly campuses in the U.S. According to a 2017 Mercury article, the push for UTD to offer gender-inclusive housing came from queer students themselves. But when the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was shut down in 2024 to comply with a new Texas law effectively banning DEI, those programs were discontinued or reduced. Hoda said the rollback appears to be a logistical decision, and that he did not get the impression it is related to the university complying with the DEI ban.
I would like for students to recognize the ways in which the UTD administration is actively causing harm to their transgender peers and be willing to do something about it
— Maxwell Reed, animation and games freshman
For Reed, who came to UTD on a full-ride scholarship, the rollback has motivated him to consider transferring out of the university and potentially leaving Texas. He said he chose UTD over similarly affordable options like the University of Alabama or the University of Tulsa because he found Dallas safer for LGBTQ+ students. Maddie plans to finish her degree at UTD but said she now has to take on the added stress of sorting out her housing each year. Her customized roommate arrangement will only last for this academic year, she said. She plans to apply for individual housing next year.
“It’s very frustrating to have all my hopes riding on that one single housing thing, because it’s so hard to find those [open spots],” Maddie said. “[With mixed-gender housing], I knew that at least if I had to change roommates every year, I would at least know they would be accepting and more willing to recognize me for who I am.”
According to Hoda, SG’s Residential Affairs committee can help students access resources or communicate with Housing about their campus residence needs. And the Basic Needs Resource Center and an off-campus housing resource site are available for students who “may not have a comfortable option on campus,” per Grief.
“I just would like to see students talking about [the rollback],” Reed said. “I would like for students to recognize the ways in which the UTD administration is actively causing harm to their transgender peers and be willing to do something about it, really, because when people are talking about it, administration is going to take some sort of note about it.”