Co-ed rooms might not need General Faculty approval

Dean Cole-Newkirk is writing proposal

At its meeting today, the Student Life Committee (SLC) asked Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk to write a co-ed housing proposal.

In about three weeks, SLC will reconvene and discuss Cole-Newkirk's proposal. If the SLC accepts the proposal, a co-ed housing option could be instituted without approval from the General Faculty and Board of Trustees.

However, Cole said that before co-ed housing can be instituted, the impact the decision will have on housing and the availability of suitable rooms must be considered. Before Cole drafts her proposal, she will consult with other deans and administrators and also conduct an all-student survey. The survey will assess how many students are interested in a co-ed housing option. "We need to get a feel for the community," Cole-Newkirk said. "How many spaces are we talking about?"

Cole-Newkirk said that in three weeks she will have a better sense of when such a housing option can be implemented at Oberlin, after more administrators have been consulted and students surveyed.

President Nancy Dye is going to meet with members of the General Faculty Council and find out how the faculty feels about the proposal. Whether the proposal is approved without going before the General Faculty depends on how the faculty feels about the issue, according to Cole-Newkirk.

Cole-Newkirk said the co-ed housing option might not be required to go before the GF because it might be, from a "practical standpoint, a minor housing change" because no written rule prohibits co-ed housing.

At its March 8 meeting, SLC passed the recommendations to the original Housing and Dining co-ed housing proposal, but did not pass the introduction to the proposal or the rationale. The Housing and Dining proposal was prompted by a Student Senate proposal passed two years ago.

The recommendations suggest that members of the opposite gender be allowed to live "on a small scale" in existing co-ed sections, in selected residence halls in divided doubles and/or quads. Students under the age of 18 would not be eligible for this housing option, nor would students be randomly placed with roommates of the opposite sex.

After passing SLC on March 8, the recommendations would have gone before the General Faculty (GF). If passed by the GF, they would have been brought before the Board of Trustees.

But, Dye asked to consult with the SLC at its meeting today and discuss the proposal with committee members. Dye said she was concerned about the SLC's consultation process and asked questions about whether all the issues that would arise as a result of implementing co-ed housing had been examined.

Dye had not seen the co-ed housing proposal until today's meeting

Dye asked if there was a stated policy prohibiting students from living together.

Sandra Hougland, the manager of housing and dining assignments, said no written rule preventing students of opposite gender from housing together currently exists. There is, however, an "unwritten assumption," she said, and if students tried to apply for opposite sex housing, they would be prevented from doing so.

Cole-Newkirk said she had not seen a lot of "broad consultation" with others, particularly admissions, about how they feel about co-ed housing, or the issues that would arise from offering such a housing option.

Jonathan Williams, associate director of admissions, said there is a lot of concern in the Office of Admissions regarding the impact Oberlin's passing a formal policy would have on prospective students, and how such a policy would be advertised. Williams said he has spent a lot of time talking to parents about co-ed dorms and co-ed bathrooms.

Members suggested the proposal be called something other than the co-ed rooms proposal, because that gives outsiders the perception that students would be living in a single open-double, rather than what is two rooms with a wall between them.

Sophomore Andreas Pape, a member of SLC, said he was pleased with the meeting's outcome. "I was afraid at first that the administration was just trying to delay [a decision on co-ed housing] as opposed to any kind of action."