the Informer

The Mixed Gender Housing Pilot Program will start in the 2010-2011 academic year. It will only allow 10 groups to participate in the trial. The 10 apartments will be in Village Quad 3. (Suzie Hunter)

The university will join the ranks of Hampshire College and Wesleyan University by implementing mixed-gender housing next year.

The Mixed Gender Housing Pilot Program will start in the 2010-2011 academic year. The program places students in the Village Quad 3 in four- and six-person apartments. Because of its new status, the program is allowing only 10 groups to participate this year.

“This will definitely give students more freedom in their choices [of who they live with],” said Jennifer Lovelace, the assistant director for assignments and billing. “These students are emerging adults, and this is part of the process for them to grow.”

Mixed gender housing is considered a group of male and female students living together in the apartment sharing the common living areas, such as kitchen and living room, but not the individual bedroom spaces. Only biological males and biological females are permitted to share a bedroom.

In order to be considered for the pilot program, students must complete the Mixed Gender Housing Application. As with other housing assignments, students must have paid the $250 room deposit and be status 1 students.

All members of the apartment must attend a “Living Together” Seminar sponsored by the Office of Residential Life. They will be held on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in a location that will be announced by the weekend. Students only need to attend one of these dates in order to get the credit.

The first groups who apply and attend the seminar will be accepted to the program. If the program is deemed successful this year, then there is a possibility that it will be expanded for the future, according to Lovelace.

Students who wish to apply must do so by Friday, March 26 at 4 p.m. at the Office of Residential Life.

The idea for mixed-gender housing was brought up by students a few years ago who drafted a proposal for this program. They worked closely with Irwin Nussbaum, who currently works as the director of the Freshman Success Center and Orientation. “He [Nussbaum] was really the catalyst for pushing this program,” said Lovelace.

From there, the university examined research and data from other schools that had implemented mixed-gender housing. The positive results from other universities helped push the program forward for Hartford.

The Office of Residential Life is discouraging couples from participating in the program. Other schools have also pushed the same idea. According to an April 2008 article from the Boston Globe, “Most colleges discourage students who are romantically involved from living together, but a few schools freely admit that some roommates are in sexual relationships, which they say is none of their business.”

According to the Office of Residential Life Web site, “This program will more importantly mirror the living choices which await students upon graduating the University of Hartford.”

“We know that some students already move off campus into mixed-gender housing,” said Lovelace. “With this program, we can keep them on campus and keep them as a part of our community.”