Coed housing available, rare at The Village

Boy meets girl. Now boy lives with girl. Even on campus.

Though there is a coed roommate option available to students at The Village at West Campus, very few have taken advantage of the opportunity.

Out of 48 apartments that could be coed, only one is used for that purpose currently. During the 2009-2010 school year, only two such apartments existed.

“Coed living situations at The Village are limited to two person suites,” Manager for Apartment Living at The Village, Jen Maraziti said.

Executive Director of Housing Larry Christenson explains why only two bedroom apartments are available for coed use.

“Before I came here four years ago, they were allowing some coed in four person suites but the problem was in, let’s say for example you had three females and a male or vice versa, as soon as one of them needed to move out, trying to find someone to move into the space was next to impossible,” Christenson said.

This problem is alleviated with the use of two bedroom apartments for the coed housing option.

“As long as it is mutually agreeable between two people, we will allow them to sign a lease with the understanding that if one moves out, they both have to move out,” Christenson said.

The two person suite option has been available for three years. Students are always interested in and want coed housing but when it becomes a real option only a small number want to do it.

University Housing is unopposed to coed roommates.

One of the reasons Christenson does not have a problem with coed housing on campus is the fact that students can rent a coed apartment off campus. Christenson thinks that if you can do it off campus you should be able to do it on campus as well.

“I think it should be allowed. If it gets out of hand that would be a problem, but otherwise I think it’s fine,” freshman English major Gray Lindsey said.

Maraziti and Christenson point out that parents’ disagreement could be a large reason why students do not live in coed housing options more frequently.

“The concern is that we are part of a state system and we still have parents who call us and still can’t believe we have men and women in the same building or on the same floor,” Christenson said.

Some students at Georgia College do not agree with coed housing.

“I just don’t feel like it is appropriate,” sophomore nursing major, Elizabeth Burns said.

Coed housing in general is better in Christenson’s opinion because when men and women are put together on the same floor they get along a lot and interact a lot better.

The process of signing up for a coed apartment is the same as signing up for a traditional apartment at The Village. Interested pairs should simply identify themselves to University Housing and fill out a coed consent form.

Posted by Bobbi Otis on Feb 3 2011. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.