“Under normal circumstances, coed housing would not be my first option for our campus,” said Shaw University Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Paul Vandergrift. However, after a summer experiment some Shaw students said they are hoping to urge the university to move in that direction.
“This university is not just males or females,” Sophomore Shayla Roundtree said. “Confining students to these living situations isn’t fair.”
Citing staffing and space issues university officials made a move earlier this year to ensure the success of its growing list of annual student outreach programs before the start of the Fall 08 semester.
“We had an opportunity this past summer to experience real world coed housing. All of our special programs and summer school lived in one building. I must say that there was little if any resistance, in fact, I was surprised at how well it was received. I believe that we as a university learned a great deal from the experience,” Vandergrift said.
The summer experiment follows the university’s move to allow coed visitation.
According to campus officials, about four years ago, Shaw’s Student Government Association began working on a proposal to initiate co-ed visitation on campus. After many meetings, revisions and policy changes, the administration implemented the plan in Fall 2007.
“I have to say that there was some skepticism but the first year was virtually problem free, so I know the students are looking forward to September 15th when we will try for year number two,” said Vandergrift.
“I am looking forward to coed housing because it gives you more freedom, and it gives you the feeling that you are not being restricted from what other college students are experiencing,” said Sophomore Rakilli Washington.
Other private institutions such as Barton College and Livingstone College allow coed residency in their dormitories according to their Web sites. “We have coed living in the new apartments on campus where I stay,” said Ontario Bell, a Junior at Saint Augustine’s College. “We are grown.”
However, some students like Shaw Senior Rebecca Hyppolite said they are against any move to have mixed gender dorms. “I really don’t think we should have coed housing for the simple fact that the students are going to use that as a chance to be sexually active.” Hyppolite said that coed housing will only create predicaments for the young ladies in the dormitories.
“If certain behaviors were to happen, security or whomever may be near the disturbance can help defuse the situation,” Roundtree countered. “You can’t just assume co-ed housing will trigger violence.”
Senior Celanese Bozeman said she could care less if Shaw has co-ed housing or doesn’t. Bozeman expressed a common theme cited by many on campus: with co-ed housing, people will not be “sneaking people in and out of the dorms.”
According to university officials there are currently no proposals on the table to initiate coed housing anytime soon, but some students are predicting it may be just a matter of time.
“Fact is,” Vandergrift said, “as the on-campus population continues to grow and one gender outpaces the other I am certain that we will have to again consider co-ed living.”