Now that the time for housing selection is coming to a close, 653 people are clambering to find roommates and suitemates, not to mention trying to fill that last spot in the apartment. The problem is is that are less than 600 girls going to WPI and more
than half of whom will most likely be living off campus or graduating bringing the number of females living on campus next year down even more. This brings a question to many minds, why aren't coed apartment and suites allowed on campus?
Being a female in a school where there is an extremely large male population, I find that most of my friends are males, and that I would rather live with people I know I can trust than with people who I am forced to live with because we are the same sex. In the apartments and in the suites there are separate bedrooms, so it is not like males and females will have to share the same room. Most of the students are above the age of eighteen and should be able to make the decision of whether or not they want to live in a coed suite.
Not being allowed to live in coed apartments or suites on campus, makes a person believe that the school feels they cannot trust us to be mature adults about living in that situation. Many move off campus so that they can live in coed apartments, but the y have to give up a lot of conveniences in order to live off campus. Sure it can cost less and you don't have to abide as many rules, however, you do have to take into account the fact that in the winter time you have to walk through a ton of puddles to get to school, the side walks sometimes aren't even plowed, and you have to shovel yourself out every time it snows, among others. Living on campus allows you to have the protection of our campus police, the convenience of the network, shoveled pathways, friends nearby, etc.
Being able to live with people we know we can trust should be the requirement for housing and not whether we're male or female. Men and women do have the ability to have platonic relationships. If the only reason that we don't have coed suites and apart ments is because it isn't believed that we can have plutonic relationships, maybe the school should rethink it's policy.
Jessica Morgan Graphics Editor