Penn State could see more coed housing on campus if a Monday night proposal by the Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) is enacted.

The proposed changes by ARHS would reduce the number of single-gender housing from 16 buildings on campus to nine. It would also decrease the number of single-gender spaces on campus from 4,541 to 2,035 of the 11,486 total residence spaces.

Goals of the proposal are to reduce single-gender housing on campus, to increase women's space in East and West Halls and to increase men's space in South Halls.

Some buildings would remain single-gender for students who prefer it and sororities that are required to live in single-gender housing. About 700 of the 2,035 single-sex living spaces would be reserved for sororities.

"The administration in ARHS has been thinking about turning more dorms into coed dorms for quite some time," said Kelley Costello, ARHS executive vice president.

She said discussions recently came up again while ARHS was considering redesigning McElwain Hall and turning it into a coed building.

"That would also reduce the number of people who were upset when they got a single-sex option when they did not want one," Costello said.

The proposal would decrease the number of single-sex buildings in East, South and West Halls.
Lynn DuBois, associate director of housing, said at the meeting that many students have not been getting the living situations they request in eLion.

"We've had so many e-mails and phone calls asking, 'why am I in a single-gender building?' " DuBois said. "We have all coed buildings in the summer and have no complaints."

Possible problems with a change were discussed, such as easier "piggybacking" in coed dorms since men don't seem as out of place in coed dorms as they do in all-female dorms.

Many students think changing single-sex dorms to coed dorms is a good idea.

"From my experience in East [Halls], coed dorms seemed a lot nicer," said Ashlyn Sparrow (sophomore-information sciences and technology), a resident of Jordan Hall, which is an all-female dorm in West Halls. "When you live in a single-sex dorm, it's like girls don't want to talk to you; they seem stuck up and petty. I think everyone likes coed stuff."

Emily Rice (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management), also a resident of Jordan Hall, said she wouldn't mind the change, but single-sex dorms are much quieter than the coed dorm she lived in last year.

"It's kind of nice not to wake up at 3 a.m. because of guys pulling fire alarms," Rice said. "I'm pretty sure it was due to guys being drunk."

Costello said she doesn't know for sure which buildings or how many would change.

"It was brought up at ARHS to get an initial reaction," she said.

Costello said ARHS members will discuss the possible changes with residents and will then make final decisions.

"There are going to be changes," she said. "I think the changes do need to be made."