Adding a feminine touch
Merrill Hall finally is going coed. And it's about time.
The hall, the last all-male residence hall on campus, marked the remnants of an outdated tradition of grouping residence halls by sex.
But more than that, the change marks a shift that likely will please students - the residence hall's customers. Residence Life is correct to make the change if only for that reason alone.
The hall had been same-sex since its construction in 1960, and its switch to coed follows in the footsteps of Thorpe and Beddow halls, which made the same switch two years ago.
In recent years, the number of applications to Merrill Hall has been on the decline, an indicator that the hall's all-male status is offsetting to incoming students. It's likely that many of its residents did not select the hall as their first pick.
In making the change, Residence Life is responding appropriately to dwindling demand.
The university now should put forward the effort to notify incoming students that Merrill will be coed in the fall. This fact could affect their residence hall selections.
Living in an all-male hall may not have been a bad experience. It may have promoted a sense of brotherhood, and many residents may have eventually viewed the same-sex requirement as an asset rather than a burden.
But it's perfectly likely that a coed Merrill Hall could have a similar sense of camaraderie with both sexes. The other residence halls serve as examples. Residence hall leaders should take great care to ensure a smooth transition in the fall.
With the change to Merrill, Sweeney Hall, an all-female hall, remains the lone same-sex hall on campus.
Though Associate Director of Residence Life Shaun Holtgreive indicated that demand has not dwindled as greatly for Sweeney Hall, Residence Life should conduct surveys to see whether residents view the same-sex requirement as an asset or a burden.
Even if demand is not greatly dwindling, making Sweeney coed could benefit more the students who decided to live there. A survey would be one way to determine whether this is the case.
