Boston University

11/07/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/08/2024 10:05

Lavender House Is Officially Open on Bay State Road

Lavender House Is Officially Open on Bay State Road

BU's new Living-Learning Community offers all-gender housing for LGBTQIA+ students and allies

BU President Melissa Gilliam and Katy Collins, LGBTQIA+ Student Resource director, cut the ribbon at an opening ceremony for Lavender House, BU's new all-gender Living-Learning Community, on October 29.

University News

Lavender House Is Officially Open on Bay State Road

BU's new Living-Learning Community offers all-gender housing for LGBTQIA+ students and allies

November 7, 2024
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Lavender House, a new Boston University Living-Learning Community for LGBTQIA+ students and allies, has officially opened in a newly renovated brownstone at 165 Bay State Road.

"I was honored to be invited to cut the ribbon commemorating the opening of Lavender House," says BU President Melissa Gilliam, who attended an opening ceremony for the residence on October 29. "This community will help our LGBTQIA+ students feel welcome and supported on campus. I am grateful for all those individuals who worked together to make Lavender House a reality."

Living-Learning Communities (LLC) are specialty residences led by faculty advisors that add a learning element to students' housing experiences. By opting to live in an LLC, students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a topic through educational events, social activities, faculty mentoring, and more. (Learn more about LLCs here.)

Planning for Lavender House began in fall 2023, as BU was preparing for the opening of the new LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center. "Our vision was to create a gender-inclusive living-learning environment curated by a faculty director and the director of the LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center that would house students in an affirming environment where they could live, learn and build community," says Jason Campbell-Foster, dean of students.

With the purchase of 165 Bay State Road from the previous owner (the building was formerly an MIT fraternity), the University had an opportunity to introduce a newly renovated space to the community this fall. The all-gender brownstone offers space for 19 students and an RA. The residence is the result of a partnership between BU Housing, Residence Life, Undergraduate Affairs, the Dean of Students Office, and the LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center, which has an affiliation with Lavender House.

"I think this was the right moment for us to create a Living-Learning Community that was truly a stand-alone all-gender facility," says Campbell-Foster. "I want students to be able to have a place where they can live comfortably, be themselves, and engage in a variety of activities that enhance their experience at BU and create a connection to the [LGBTQIA+ Student] Resource Center.

"I'm excited to make clear the full circle of support that the LGBTQIA+ community has here at BU-from the academic side, the student service side, the housing side-and to really set an example for how identity-based housing can be so enriching for everyone involved."

"We really have an opportunity to set a standard for specialty housing at BU with this idea and this brand-new space," says Katy Collins, director of the LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center. "The residents all come from different backgrounds and are a mix of upper- and underclassmen-I'm so looking forward to seeing what kind of community they build from scratch and seeing how they support one another."

Tawnya Smith, a College of Fine Arts assistant professor of music and music education, is the faculty advisor for Lavender House. Faculty advisors for LLCs create and curate learning opportunities for the house residents. Smith's current research involves trauma and mental health-and LGBTQIA+-informed music learning.

She says she was drawn to the advisor role in part because it allows her to "cocreate experiences that I would have loved to have had when I was an undergrad, coming out at a time when there were few opportunities to explore and celebrate a queer identity."

Lavender House residents are required to attend weekly meetings as well as four events a semester. Most of the programming will be in collaboration with the LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center, and the full calendar is still being developed, Smith and Collins say.

Going forward, the Lavender House RA, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences, hopes to create a programming committee for residents to weigh in on, and plan, events. For now, "the focus is on everyone getting to know each other and just figuring out how to be a Living-Learning Community," they say. But events like guest speakers, book clubs, seminars, and house dinners are likely down the line, they say.

As for the learning aspect of the Living-Learning docket: the residents plan to start with studying LGBTQIA+ history.

"Even if you're part of the queer community, you might not know a lot about the history of the LGBTQIA+ community at large and what has led us to a position of being able to have this house in the first place," the RA says. "Learning about that history is as important as feeling safe in the community and having those community-building events."

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