The Student Affairs has passed and is implementing a pilot study for mixed-gender housing, which was available during Room Draw this past week. Mixed-gender housing allows students to live with a member of the opposite sex through Carnegie Mellon Housing Services under an apartment-style plan. The school will provide 25 off-campus units in Shady Oak Apartments for mixed-gender housing.

Located at 601 Clyde Street, Shady Oak provides one- or two-bedroom apartments. The occupants share private bathrooms.  

This program has stirred up much debate and mixed opinions among students and the community. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Reg Henry wrote an article on February 28, 2007 titled "CMU dorm policy: Nerds gone wild?" in response to the University's new policy.

"Perhaps we ought to give the kids a break too," wrote Henry, "especially as those Carnegie Mellon kids aren't kids at all but adults, even if it drives us crazy that they are having so much fun."

However, the coed housing idea is not new. Students have been known to utilize Special Interest Housing (SIH) to improve organizational cohesiveness, obtain better rooms, and have friends live close-by. For instance, Alpha Kappa Psi (AKPsi), a business fraternity, has two SIH co-ed housing units in the Resnik dormitory.

"Since there are eight people in each suite, it's actually like a small co-ed hallway in another dorm," said Michael Albrecht, an AKPsi-SIH resident and Tepper sophomore. "We also just happen to be friends."

Xiao-Lan Wong, a Tepper junior, currently is one of the three girls who live in the SIH for Alpha Kappa Psi.  

"On my particular floor, it is just me and my roommate who live with 6 boys," Wong said. "We just drill it into their heads to keep [our bathroom] clean if they use it, which they do, and to put the toilet seat down, which they don't. They also seem to like to spray Axe in the bathroom, which overwhelms the bathroom, so we got an air freshener."

Student Body President Karl Sjogren and Vice President Andrea Hamilton had the mixed gender housing proposal as one of their platform planks since they ran for office during the fall semester.  

When asked about the obstacles he had faced, Sjogren attributed the obstacles to misunderstanding on the part of the general public and the administrators.

"People think we're suddenly going to allow males and females to share rooms in New House. That's not going to happen," Sjogren said. "Once initial misconceptions are cleared up, people are usually pretty enthusiastic about the program."

Furthermore, there was an unclear need of the pilot program.

"No one has demonstrated, protested or shouted about the need of the program -- so it's hard to convince administrators, students, or anyone that it's a good thing," Sjogren added. "This was really about trying something new [...] It's hard to convince people to make an experiment a priority if there's not a large public interest in doing so."

The success and popularity of the mixed-gender housing program will be assessed after Room Draw selections are finalized.

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