Mixed-gender halls are nothing new to Pepperdine University. They have been a part of life in George Page, Lovernich, Drescher, and International Programs (IP) — people just never paid attention to them.
The point of contention really lies in parents’ perceptions of this change to housing: “I was their age once, and I believe it would be a distraction,” parent Rick Allen said. Many parents are on this bandwagon and assume that these distractions will lead down a slippery slope.
The fact that this is a Christian university also plays into how parents and even some students feel about this change. “I think it ruins the point of sending your student to a Christian university,” said Towers resident Adeline McKinley.
In making these changes Housing and Residence Life (HRL) considered ideas collected from students surveys distributed last semster.
“We heard from students that didn’t get a chance to go to an IP because of their major or because they’re an athlete,” Associate Dean of HRL, Brian Dawson said. One of the reasons mixed-gender halls were implemented into the sophomore experience in Malibu was to mirror housing overseas.
“We’re not calling them coed because it has this connotation that guys and girls are either living together or they’re sharing bathrooms, and so we are saying that they’re a mixed-gender hall,” Dawson said. This connotation is the reason why some parents believe that this housing arrangment could inspire unseemly actions.
When parents and students know the level of supervision in these mixed-gender halls they may feel more comfortable with them. Men live on one side and women on another with a staff member residing in between.
There are options for those who feel uncomfortable living in mixed-gender housing. In sophomore housing there are still all male, all female houses and in Towers there is an all women’s floor. Rooms and suites have enforced visiting hours in all of the mixed-gender housing throughout campus.
Mixed-gender housing will hopefully not only mirror IP housing in form but also in the closeness of the student body. Mixed-gender housing will prepare us for living conditions off campus or in housing for upperclassmen.
Guys and girls have always hung out in one another’s rooms and this will not create or increase disciplinary problems. Whether or not dorms are mixed-gender, issues will arise anyway.
Parents must give their students a new degree of trust now that they have entered adulthood. “You’ve got to have faith in me as a person to do what’s right,” sophomore Kiara Smith said.
It is understandable that first-year students do not have the option of living in a mixed-gender hall since some may still be minors, but as upperclassmen there is a level of maturity and age that lends itself to more responsibility and privilege.
