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April 12, 2005
Coed living now available to some
Next fall, for the first time, Hamline will allow students to live in coed dorms, but only under one condition: At least one roommate must be from the GLBTIA community.
“It was time to make this change,” said Patti Klein, director of Residential Life. “The students were ready for it, and we needed to be, too.”
Students involved in Spectrum, the GLBTIA organization on campus, and Residential Life have been working together on this arrangement since the beginning of January.
First-year Douglas Sabart said that when he and his future roommate, Katie Stollenwerk, first asked
Residential Life about coed housing, they were turned down.
But they weren’t going to take no for an answer, he said.
“We kept the dialogue open with them and continued to be persistent in asking for coed housing options,” said Sabart.
They ended up writing a formal proposal to Residential Life with a few other members of Spectrum, including current president Kevin Watson.
The proposal, Klein said, was exactly what Res Life was looking for.
“[It] showed that they were dedicated to the issue and that it was something they really wanted,” she said.
Simultaneously, Aaron Chvatal and future roommate Mickenzie Fasteland, also first-years, were
contributing via e-mail to the dialogue with Res Life.
“It was pretty funny when we found out we wanted the same thing and were all talking to Res Life at the same time,” Chvatal said, “and not [to] each other.”
The results of their efforts led to the creation of housing areas in second-floor Drew Hall specifically dedicated to social justice and women’s issues, and to GLBTIA students and their allies. This included two rooms with coed housing.
The administration, as well as the students involved, expressed their excitement about this new opportunity. Klein said she was happy with the final decision allowing coed housing, which “provides options to make every student feel comfortable on Hamline’s campus, which is why we are here.”
Hamline is the second ACTC school, behind Macalester, to offer this type of living arrangement.
The students living together next year will live under the same rules and parameters as all other students.
“We’re not going to micromanage them. They are all very responsible students, and I know most of them very well,” Klein said.
The coed housing option will also be extended to incoming first-years upon request.
Housing options for GLBTIA students next year have now been expanded to this coed housing option, along with the new Spectrum house, the themed floor in Drew Hall.
Additionally, there is the new question on housing cards, asking incoming students about their comfort level with living with a homosexual roommate. And students are happy with the changes.
“Next year is going to be really cool,” Sabart said. “Katie and I hit it off right away, and living in the dorms together is going to be the start of something new.”
Posted by msveum at April 12, 2005 03:48 PM
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