MU students seek coed rooms

Monday, November 12, 2012

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri has been considering requests from student groups to provide coed rooms for students.

Several University of Missouri student groups, including the Residential Halls Association, have adopted resolutions calling for gender-neutral housing.

“Gender-neutral housing is something that’s very important,” Xavier Billingsley, president of the Missouri Students Association, told The Columbia Daily Tribune (http://bit.ly/Q8iA7G). “We want students to feel comfortable at our university. Gender-neutral housing is a step we can take to really show students we do care about their well-being and want to help them as much as we can.”

Frankie Minor, director of the University of Missouri’s Residential Life Department, said Saturday he hopes to develop a solution by next fall and is seeking advice from other universities.

“We need to get a sense of who is our target population,” he said.

Washington University in St. Louis and Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville both offer gender-neutral housing. Northwest Missouri began its gender-neutral housing program this year after requests from transgendered students. The Northwest Missouri program allows male and female students to choose to live together, and is open to all students

At the University of Missouri transgendered students can now request special arrangements such as a single room, but fewer than five students have taken advantage of that policy, Minor said.

He said space is also an issue for the university because residential halls are full and mostly limited to freshmen. Opening coed rooms also might not solve issues for transgendered students because some coed rooms could be taken by opposite-sex friends, relatives or couples. There is no guarantee that transgendered students assigned to a coed room without pre-selected roommates would find themselves living with allies.

“We don’t want to force students into accommodations that are uncomfortable for them,” Minor said.

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Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com

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wow 6 months, 1 week ago

Hey...if ya wanna have a personal apartment, then move off campus. Until then Co-Ed dorms is the closet ya get to having a live in friend with benefit's. Gee wiz folks, I know this is the modern era and I'm not trying to be prudish, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Come on folks enough already.

Paroquet 6 months, 1 week ago

But the line has to be drawn somehwere?

My best roomie was a chick that was dating someone not me. We both graduated, with honors. About the only tension we ever ran into was when she drank all the tea in the evening, or I didn't make the coffee in the morning.

I find it amusing that some puritanical heterosexuals are opposed to co-ed dorm rooms. For me, it's a pretty easy decision--"Got your rent? Cool. We good." Can't say as I ever had sex with a roommate, unless you count the Missus.

For that matter, a legal question begs; if someone is occupying a property under a contract, can they really be said as "controlling a property" if there are reservations of control explicit to an owner or third party? I mean, an owner should be responsible for their property, right? Or, are they not responsible for their property & tenants? Tenants who have no ownership, or presumption of obligation or control outside of their contract.

I ain't a lawyer. Not even armchair. But, I do pay attention.

Anywho--I say let whomever live with whomever, so long as the rent is paid. Biz is biz. A business that takes state monies has no business legislating its own morality. You retain ownership, as agreed, and relinquish control so long as the contract is maintained. But if you're taking gov't monies, you can't make stipulations of occupants' gender, race, religion, or a bunch of other things you might not agree with.

wow 6 months, 1 week ago

Not against romming with the opposit sex and I agree that there are a good deal of mature resposible college types who can handle the situation...even if somebody drinks all the iced tea or Kool-Aid. It's just my opinion that a University providing Co-Ed rooms isn't a smart idea...there are just to many liability issues. Perhaps this could be provided for Juniors and Seniors...it's still a case by case deal, but for the most part these older students have proven themselves to be a bit more responsible than say....new recently graduated High School Seniors who are now 18 year old "College Frosh" who are away from Mom and Dad for the first time. For the new meat on the campus, putting them in Co-Ed rooms, is like putting a bleeding person in the water with starving sharks.

Paroquet 6 months, 1 week ago

A heap of them are like that regardless. Took care of many of them. Helped them. Kept them safe. Some parents have a thing for not letting their kids grow-up, even if they are adults. It's disturbing.

Away from Mom and Dad for the first time? That's not healthy. Mom and dad should've taken care of that beforehand, when they had some legal standing.

I lived off-campus. Why? Didn't like the landlords. Why? Because my parents raised me to be an adult, and I was done being treated like a kid. Some of those poor, broken things that came on to campus, it was awful. And worse? It wasn't their fault. P.K.s & home-schools were the hardest-off by far. Mommy and daddy protected them, kept them safe all their lives, and then couldn't anymore. Know of several who went back home after a single semester. They couldn't cope, and had nil in the way of social skills. It was sad.

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