IRVINE : Students Clash Over UCI Housing Policy

About a dozen UC Irvine students Tuesday night denounced their student government’s efforts to change rules that prohibit homosexual couples from obtaining family housing on campus.

This month, Associated Students of UC Irvine passed a resolution calling for university policy to be changed to allow unmarried couples to qualify for family housing. The student leaders passed the resolution after Chancellor Jack W. Peltason’s decision to end a policy that permitted several homosexual couples to live in family housing.

The protesters showed up at a meeting of the Associated Students to say that allowing unmarried couples access to family housing would result in traditional families being crowded out.

“The resolution is really out of line,” said Deanne Frakes, a resident of the 500-unit Verano family housing complex.

Another dozen students attended Tuesday’s meeting to support the student-government resolution.

Opponents “argue that if the policy went into effect, they’d be deprived of housing,” Verano resident John Refling said. “But the reality is that they’re limiting access to a whole segment of students.”