This quarter, Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) will make several changes to the undergraduate housing process, including reducing the maximum draw group size from eight to six people and increasing the number of dorms that offer gender-neutral housing.

According to R&DE Executive Director for Strategic Communications Jocelyn Breeland, large draw groups are difficult to accommodate in the draw because more vacancies are needed in residences in order to keep group members together. On average, less th

an two percent of groups have been larger than six in past years, even with the previously imposed limit of eight students.

“Large groups often contact us after the Draw and are distressed because they were split,” Breeland told The Daily.

Breeland also cited student concerns that large groups may become overwhelming presences in the dorms in which they are placed, making it difficult for other community members to make new friends.

In addition to the reduction in draw group size, the number of residences offering gender-neutral housing this year will increase from 11 to 20.

Gender-inclusive housing allows students of different genders to live in the same room. The program was launched in 2008 and has received overwhelmingly positive responses, Breeland said.

“Although the number of students who take advantage of this program is relatively small, the ability to live in a gender-inclusive room environment is of great importance to them,” Breeland said.

This year, R&DE worked to make sure that gender-inclusive housing options were available across a variety of tiers, housing types and locations on campus.

The Governor’s Corner Suites, however, will no longer host gender-neutral housing as they have in the past, as R&DE has had to work around many conflicting requests to maintain gender-neutral housing in this location.

In the past, students who drew into Suites as a gender-inclusive group have often been separated and placed into different suites due to the difficulty of keeping those who did not apply for gender-neutral housing within single-gender suites.

“For example, if one man wanted to live with three women, we needed another suite with one woman who wanted to live with three men,” Breeland said. “Otherwise, at the end of the In-House Draw, we would be left with a mixed-gender group that did not want to live together.”

Contact Emily Jusuf at ejusuf ‘at’ stanford.edu.