ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996              TAG: 9609090149
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press RICHMOND

COED DORMS CREATE ONE BIG FAMILY ALTHOUGH AT FIRST CONTROVERSIAL, COED LIVING IS NOW SEEN AS THE NORM

The decision upset many alumni, some of whom predicted that men and women living together would unleash unbridled hormones and sexual debauchery.

``They said the first thing you know there'll be clotheslines between the columns and the coeds will be hanging things there,'' recalled Raymond Bice, the university's historian.

Instead, Bice said, the change created ``a dramatic change in study habits.'' The men became more bookish, because they weren't always racing off to nearby girls' schools.

``Before coeducation, I could always park in front of the library at night. But once coeducation came, you couldn't park within a mile of it,'' Bice said.

In the years since then, coed dorms have become the norm at most Virginia colleges and universities. Nationwide, more than 60 percent of college housing is coed, and it's the choice of most students.

Edward Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs at Virginia Tech, said coed housing can range from men on one floor, women on another to men in one wing, women in another. In some places, men and women are on the same hallway in adjoining rooms.

Relatively few sexual relationships develop in coeducational housing, Spencer said.

``It's the old incest taboo. ... You create a sense of family,'' he said. ``Another reason is that if you get in a relationship and it goes sour, ... who wants to wake up in the morning and walk down the hall and perhaps see a previous romantic interest?''

Instead, men and women who live together tend to date students who live elsewhere.

There are exceptions, said Jenny Tse, a senior English major at Virginia Tech. Several people on the fourth floor of Payne Hall where she lives are dating each other, she said, but the family atmosphere still exists.

``I like the fact I live with men. It's like having 20 brothers on the hall,'' said Tse.

What makes coeducational housing work is ``a mutual respect for each other,'' she said. ``We're not going to be rude.''

State colleges have gone beyond coed housing to include a variety of special living arrangements. Among the choices are 24-hour quiet dorms, language dorms, honors dorms, business dorms, smoke-free dorms and international dorms.

``These kinds of arrangements can enhance the quality of learning,'' said Phyllis Mable, vice president for student affairs at Longwood College in Farmville.

Mable believes that one future option may be the return of having faculty live in the same residences as students.

``It's kind of an old concept,'' she said, ``but I think we'll see more of that.''

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