Cushing to become gender-expansive
CUSHING RESIDENTS HANGING OUT in the common room after dorm meeting. Currently, Cushing only houses seniors, but starting next school year, Cushing will become a gender-expansive housing students from all grades.
May 27, 2022
For the 2022-2023 school year, the Cushing dorm at Masters will transition from a co-ed senior dorm to a gender expansive dorm. The transition is designed specifically for students who identify as transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender queer/questioning, gender fluid or gender expansive in order to create a more inclusive community. Masters is aligned with the country’s most elite private boarding schools such as Phillips Academy Andover, Phillips Exeter Academy, Choate Rosemary Hall, and The Hotchkiss School to have created a gender expansive dorm. These big academies created a blueprint for opening gender expansive dorms and most proved to be successful.
According to previous surveys, Masters has a considerable amount of student voices petitioning for the creation of a gender inclusive dorm and the school, after careful consideration and detailed planning, decides to make it happen. Jayde Bennett, the Director of Residential life, commented, “I know that the initiative started pre-COVID and some students who live in female or male identifying dorms have expressed how they don’t feel comfortable and don’t feel like they belong. What’s important to me, and Master’s mission in general, is the sense of belonging, so after hearing from students across the spectrum, we decided that it would be great to provide a space so that all of our students can feel safe and taken care of.”
Although the final dorm policy has not been set in place, it is for sure that the protocols for Cushing will differ from the male/female identifying dorms as students will not be separated based on their genders assigned at birth, but their own gender preferences. After this change, the overall housing structure at Masters will include two female-identifying dorms, two male-identifying dorms and the new gender expansive dorm that accommodates students who may otherwise feel uncomfortable living in a space just designated for boys and girls. Junior Kathy Christie, the senior proctor in Cushing for the 2022-2023 school year, said, “For all my years at Masters, I have seen a reasonable amount of transgender or nonbinary kids, and I think creating a safe and respectful place is very necessary.”
The creation of a gender expansive dorm is a big step Masters took towards building a more inclusive and caring community. It also proves that as long as students are willing to express their concerns, the school will try its best to make these voices heard. The director of Residential Life Jayde Bennett said, “All students, at some point, are going through a transition. During the transition period, they really need to feel supported, understood, and appreciated. So with the creation of the gender expansive dorm, the intention is just to let students know that first of all, we hear your voice and concerns, we thank you for helping us see this need, and we want to honor that in the best way we can. ”
Christie said, “I made a lot of friends in Cole, which is a dorm that I lived for three years, and it is difficult that now I’m moving to a different environment, but thinking of creating and keeping a safe and comfortable place for the LGBTQIA+, I’m willing to be the person to stand up and step forth.”
