Coed living surfaces on college campuses

Several colleges, excluding Truman, now offer the option of coed residential apartments, houses and even dorm rooms.

Truman students reacted differently to the idea of coed living. Junior Julie Bates, who lives in Fair Apartments, said she would like Truman to offer students the option of coed apartments.

"I would want to have a coed apartment," Bates said. "My best friend is a guy, and I think I would love to live with him. It would be cool to have a coed apartment."

Other students said they wouldn't oppose the idea of coed residential apartments.

"I'm not totally sure I would opt for a [coed apartment], but I don't see a problem with them," said sophomore Michael Pratt, who lives in Campbell Apartments.

Junior Adam England also lives in Campbell Apartments and said he would not live in a coed apartment.

"No, because if I was looking for a roommate, I can't imagine looking around and seeing a girl and thinking 'you would be the easiest person to live with,'" England said.

Three East Coast colleges, including Haverford College in Haverford, Pa., Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa., offer coed residential living in single housing units to their students.

Haverford College, a private liberal arts college, allows students to live in coed apartments. Pam Sheridan, director of public information at Haverford, said the college has offered the option for about three years.

"A couple years ago students asked if the apartments on campus could be coed," Sheridan said. "We decided to do it on a trial basis, and it worked out. It's not a policy. It's just something that students requested and administration considered."

Sheridan said the option of coed rooms is limited to Haverford's apartments. The apartments are suite-style with several single-person rooms that share a common lounge area.

"[Dorm rooms] are not coed," Sheridan said. "Freshmen are not allowed to live in coed situations."

Wesleyan University offers both coed residential apartments and houses. Casey Yu, student director of residential life, said Wesleyan first offered the option of coed apartments and houses to upperclass students who wanted to live with friends of the opposite sex.

Yu said Wesleyan does not offer coed living to freshmen.Truman's coed living policy is extremely limited compared to the policies of these east coast schools.

"We don't assign people to coed living unless they are married,"said Andrea O'Brien, director of residential living." The couple can live in a campus apartment and they must make a copy of their marriage liscense to submit with their contract," O'Brien said Missouri law prevents Truman from allowing coed living.

Swarthmore College offers its students coed double-person rooms, citing different reasons from Haverford and Wesleyan for implementing its coed policy. The June 2001 issue of the Swarthmore College Bulletin discusses Swarthmore's introduction of mixed-gender rooms.

According to the Bulletin, the House Committee endorsed a proposal by members of the Swarthmore Queer Union in December 2001.

"Mandatory same-gender rooming is heterosexist, in that it fails to account for the comfort of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students," according to the  proposal. Swarthmore decided to offer the option to choose an opposite-sex roommate to non-freshmen in about 4 percent of student housing.

Sheridan said the demand for coed rooms at Haverford has been small.

"We have about 1,100 students," she said. "This fall the number of coed apartments is 14 with 42 students living in them."

Sheridan said the college hasn't had problems with offering coed apartments, but if there were a problem, all the students living in the apartment would have to give it up. She said the coed apartments have worked out well for many students.

Yu agreed that coed rooms rarely result in roommate conflict.

"We don't see a lot of problems, and we've never had a male-female rooming conflict," Yu said. "It's not usually a couple that lives in [a coed apartment or house]. It's just two friends who want to live together."

At Haverford, students who want to live with a roommate of the opposite sex must specifically request that roommate.

"Coed rooms are not assigned; they are requested," Sheridan said. "So it's not as if anyone would be surprised."

Wesleyan, however, can place students who do not request coed living into a coed apartment or house.

"Our students are well aware that when a vacancy occurs they may be put with a person of the opposite sex," Yu said.