This year, Stanford made an announcement with no prior warning: all students with disabilities are no longer allowed to apply for housing in groups or to choose a roommate. This stark change, a drastic shift from Stanford’s previous policies, shocked me. The new housing policy is unequal and unjustly impacts students with disabilities. 

I am one of the many students with housing accommodations. I have life-threatening anaphylactic food allergies. This means that I cannot have a roommate, I eat all my meals at Branner dining and making friends can be very challenging. After all, food is a form of connection. The smallest trace of my allergen, whether trail mix dust left on a table or an unwashed hand after eating Reese’s peanut butter cups, can trigger a deadly allergic reaction. 

This school year, I was lucky to connect with a group of friends. We planned to apply as a group and live together during the 2026-27 school year.  

At the beginning of the winter quarter, I knocked on my friends’ doors to ask them to join my group. We hurried to put together a group chat. I had meetings with my disability advisor, checked numerous Stanford FAQ pages and called the Student Housing department to confirm that I could apply with a group. The night before the housing form opened, I texted all my friends. We were ready and excited. 

When I opened the email Stanford sent out to all students seeking housing, I quickly scrolled to the bottom to find instructions for students with disability accommodations. I was confused by what I read: “students with approved disability-based accommodations are not eligible to form or join assignment groups.” 

Stanford is trying to solve a real issue: it is well-documented that some students exploit the housing accommodations by either faking or exaggerating a disability. The newly implemented policy tries to eliminate the problem entirely, abolishing group housing for students with disability accommodations. Michelle Rasmussen, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, told The Daily that providing housing priorities to friends of those with disabilities led to unequal outcomes for those who did not have friends with disabilities. 

But Stanford isn’t addressing the real issue. Instead of cracking down on those who exploit the system, Stanford’s decision leaves those who actually have disabilities in the crosshairs. Their decision is inherently unequal, allowing all students to apply for housing with friends, except for those with a disability. 

Rasmussen went on to tell The Daily that Stanford’s decision was based on the desires of students or their “pain points in the room draw process.” But if anyone has pain points in the room draw process, it’s those with disabilities.

The process is arduous. After submitting form after form and having numerous discussions with the OAE office and the Student Housing office, it was difficult to get my disability approved for housing requirements without a doctor’s note, full medical history, personal statement and more. Additionally, throughout all those conversations, I was never alerted of Stanford’s new decision to bar me from applying with a group. I only found out when the housing form opened, just a week before the recommended deadline for students with disabilities. 

In an email announcing the change, Stanford wrote, “We understand living with friends is important.”

It’s not just important, it’s crucial. Students who require physical accommodations or have a restricted ability to move cannot see their friends because they will not live nearby. A student with a developmental or intellectual disability will lose social circles they may have spent years creating, depriving them of a steady community.

Under this new policy, students with disabilities will be displaced from the social relationships and friendships they cultivated over the previous year. When having a disability already makes you an outsider, Stanford should be focused on inclusion. But now, these housing changes will present just another hurdle for students with disabilities to overcome.  

Stanford could instead focus on the real problem: students who take advantage of the OAE housing accommodations system. By studying which students try to cheat the system and with what disabilities (perhaps by looking at which disabilities are overrepresented in the OAE population), Stanford can implement a policy that doesn’t affect the entire disability community. Most significantly, Stanford shouldn’t be making unilateral decisions about the privileges of students with disabilities. By communicating directly with students with disabilities through a student-run disability council or other student representatives, Stanford can ensure that future decisions do not have a dramatically unequal impact. 

Stanford’s decision is not the way to solve our housing problem. Extending a privilege to all students, except those with a disability, is a glaring double standard. A disabled student should be allowed to choose their housing group and roommate, just like the thousands of non-disabled students all across campus.