Housing debate spurs activism

News Analysis

The issue of co-ed housing has been pushed to the forefront of campus politics this semester.

Though the Student Senate proposal, which asks that co-ed divided doubles and quads be made available to students who are 18 years or older and request such a housing assignment, passed the Housing and Dining Committee last spring, it was only when the Student Life Committee (SLC) passed recommendations to the proposal in early April that people began to vocalize both their concerns about such a proposal and their passionate support of such a proposal.

Neither Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk nor President Nancy Dye had seen a copy of the Student Senate proposal until the April 5 SLC meeting, when Dye asked to consult with the SLC and discuss the proposal with committee members. Both Dye and Cole-Newkirk suggested that all the issues that might arise as a result of implementing a co-ed rooms option had not been examined, and should be.

Cole-Newkirk said she was surprised co-ed rooms became the issue to end the year on. "I was surprised," Cole-Newkirk said. "No one predicted [that the issue would gain so much attention] after first semester."

Alumni and parents who responded to surveys distributed by Cole-Newkirk expressed, for the most part, reactions to the Student Senate proposal that ranged from mixed to overwhelmingly disapproving.

"No one is wildly enthuiastic," said Assistant Director of the Annual Fund Liesl Strickler, who works with the Parent Council.

Margaret Brittingham, executive director of the alumni association, said the alums quickest to respond to the survey were those who disapproved of the Senate proposal.

Positive response to the Senate proposal is less common than negative response. Typically, though, those who express disapproval are more likely to voice their opinions than those who approve.

And then there are those who have not reacted to the proposal at all. Most faculty members who were asked in early May said they had not thought much about the issue of co-ed housing. "I don't have a view formed," Professor of Classics Thomas Van Nortwick said. "I haven't been privy to discussion in the SLC."

Professor of Politics Chris Howell, an SLC member who voted in favor of the proposal, said that most faculty had not had time to think about the issue. He said that to most faculty, co-ed housing appears to be a "silly low-level issue."

But there are people who support Senate's co-ed rooms proposal, or else it would not have been the center of debate and discussion for half a semester. Student Senators claim that it is students who support the issue, having expressed overwhelming support for the proposal in a referendum held by Senate in 1994.

But only about 140 students attended the speak-out for co-ed rooms hosted by the Student Senate. Only 515 student responded to Cole-Newkirk's surveys to gauge student demand for co-ed rooms. Despite the issue's prominence, a majority of students have not voiced their opinion in any way. But some members of Student Senate, particularly senior Noah Bopp, junior Chapin Beninghoff and sophomore Andreas Pape have been instrumental in engineering the speak-out and discussion about the issue.

Some have noted that the student voices most heavily involved in the debate are male. Dye asked, in an interview Monday, why she had rarely heard female voices expressing support for the co-ed housing proposal.

Cole-Newkirk said she had noticed that most of the student voices involved in the discussion are male. "I noticed it," Cole-Newkirk said. "I didn't understand why that was." She said that when she met with Senate to discuss the topic, only two women Senators had something to say about it.

Senators are quick to point out that the issue stems beyond co-ed housing and view Cole-Newkirk's proposal to reconfigure residence halls as a diversionary tactic, which Cole-Newkirk denies is the case. Senators who are heavily invested in the co-ed housing issue say they are frustrated because they feel the administration is sidestepping an issue students care about. But those Senators who have been involved with the proposal since its inception or at committee-level seem most upset with the administration's move.

"Many people think of [Cole-Newkirk's proposal] not as a strategic issue but as a stalling tactic," sophomore senator Marissa Demetrius said.

Of Cole-Newkirk's proposal, senator senior Noah Bopp said, "It is not what we were asking for."

Beninghoff said at an SLC meeting that if students are not given what they ask for, they might lose faith in the new administration.

Though the surface issue is co-ed housing, underlying issues permeate discussion, questions about the administration's intentions and how the administration views student concerns. Senate has seen its original proposal pass through two committees - unlike many of the proposals the body generates. Now, when it seems that a proposal Senators consider progressive is stalled at SLC, they want to bring attention to it and remind administrators that their concerns are important.