Free Republic

Jack and Jill’ aren’t allowed to live together at the University of Kansas yet, but more and more school are allowing members of the opposite sex to live together . Most colleges didn’t allow students of different genders to live in the same dormitory 40 years ago. After gender-neutral buildings were opened, universities began to allow members of the opposite sex to live on the same floor. Now, there’s a new gender-based issue to debate in student housing. “We’re at the next phase in the evolution,” Jeffrey Chang, co-founder of the National Student Genderblind Campaign, said. “Why can’t men and...

Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia share a dorm room at Connecticut's Wesleyan University. But they say there's no funny business going on. Really. They mean it.

To the Astonishment of Some Parents, Colleges Allow Coed Dorm Rooms Saturday , May 03, 2008 AP Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia share a dorm room at Connecticut's Wesleyan University. But they say there's no funny business going on. Really. They mean it. They have set up their beds side-by-side like Lucy and Ricky in "I Love Lucy," and avert their eyes when one of them is changing clothes. "People are shocked to hear that it's happening and even that it's possible," said Youngdahl, a 20-year-old sophomore. But "once you actually live in it, it doesn't actually turn into a...

College Knowledge Check List by: Deborah Lambert, March 21, 2008 Longtime radio talk show host Dennis Prager has some advice for aspiring college students and/or their parents. Before plunking down wads of cash for that life-changing campus experience, you might want to ask a few questions about prospective schools that include the following: 1. “Can one obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree at your college without having to read a single Shakespeare play, one Federalist paper or one book of the Bible?” 2. "Does the college allow military recruiters on its campus?" 3. "What is the ratio of Democrats to...

DAVIS, Calif. -- A University of California, Davis freshman was in custody early Thursday after the discovery of bomb-making materials forced hundreds of students to evacuate their campus dormitories. Fire officials said several potentially dangerous chemicals were found in a dorm room, but the items had not yet been assembled into an explosive device, Sacramento TV station KCRA reported. "At this point, the bomb squad has set up a plan to remove the materials in a safe manner," said Paul Pfotenhauer, a fire spokesman for UC Davis, shortly after 8 a.m. PST. "Since the threat level has been lowered because...

Coed Dorms, Coed Floors — Now, Coed Rooms By REBECCA JAMES   From left, Brienna Dees, Pat Vescio, Kayla Capponi and Alexia Martinez often hang out together in Capponi's dorm room at the State University of New York at Oswego. Martinez is a sophomore, the other three are freshmen. (Photo by John Berry)     A new wave of coed housing that allows men and women to share rooms is hitting campuses around the country, and Cornell University senior Vince Hartman thinks it's about time."A lot of students are over the age of 18 and they have friends that are...

As the first-ever term of gender-neutral housing at Dartmouth comes to a close, the Office of Residential Life has begun to look back at its newly instituted gender-neutral housing program floor and, based on positive feedback, does not foresee a need to make any significant changes in the coming terms. Out of the 32 students who applied for this special housing, 16 students and one undergraduate advisor were eventually chosen because they showed an active interest in participating in the model of a shared community which would hold programs and dinners focused on discussing gender-related issues. Article continues on TheDartmouth.com...

Somewhere along the way, college life has gotten a whole lot more posh. On a number of campuses, students are able to hire personal maids to clean and do their laundry. They pay moving crews to pack and transport their stuff — plasma TVs and other high-end electronics included. And they’re living large in housing that looks like anything but a dorm. ... Upscale housing and other perks also fit with some parents’ expectations, especially those whose children attend the priciest private schools. “It makes the $40,000 tuition worth it,” says Brian Altomare, the 25-year-old president and founder of Madpackers,...

rules: link only http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070418/UPDATES01/70418013/1002/NEWS01

One day after the car belonging to missing college student Taylor Marie Behl was located, Richmond police said yesterday that they believe the Virginia Commonwealth University freshman might have been abducted. Behl's 1997 Ford Escort was found Saturday morning in a neighborhood about 1 1/2 miles from the Richmond campus. Its license plates had been replaced with Ohio tags that were reported stolen in Richmond about two months before the Sept. 5 disappearance of Behl. ............No alert was issued when Behl was reported missing because the case did not meet the criteria, police said. Investigators executed several search warrants Friday,...

Governor snuffs out smoking in dorms PRINCETON - Saying it would reduce the risk of fires and protect students' health, acting Governor Codey signed legislation Monday banning smoking in dormitories at public and private colleges. "Today we are creating safer, healthier residence halls," Codey said in a written statement. The governor signed the legislation at Drew University in Madison where a cigarette ignited a dorm room fire on Feb. 14. Automatic sprinklers quickly doused the fire and no one was injured. The ban will go into effect in 60 days, and individual colleges will decide how to enforce it. According...

In the fall of 2000, I promised my daughter the freshman that I wouldn’t write about Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.) until she graduated. As a result, you readers learned nothing from me about the naked dorm, the transgender dorm, the queer prom, the pornography-for-credit course, the obscene sidewalk chalking, the campus club named crudely for a woman’s private part, or the appearance on campus of a traveling anti-Semitic roadshow, loosely described as a pro-Palestinian conference. Instead of hot news items like these, you usually just hear that Wesleyan is very “diverse.” Newsweek once hailed the school as the “hottest” diversity...

March 22, 2005 At Harvard, an Unseemly Display of Wealth or Merely a Clean Room? By PAM BELLUCK CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 21 - The cleaning implements in Leonard Novy's apartment at Harvard consist of two sponges so calcified they could be from the Mesozoic Era and a broom betraying few hints of much actual sweeping. The other day, there was a grimy handprint on the wall, a blizzard of dust on the television, and a carpet so littered with lint that it was hard to tell whether it was gray or had turned that color under a film of filth....

Some University of Michigan students are cleaning up their acts in more ways than one. They are getting $100 cash payments for keeping their dorm rooms presentable and opening their doors so prospective students and their parents can take a look during campus visits. Among the 18 students participating in the tour program are sophomores Aaron Bennick and Eric Romain, engineering majors who have loft beds that fit over their desks, a clean beige love seat with light-blue pillows, two refrigerators and a bookcase filled with laundry supplies and food.

Students Punished for Dorm Stripper Pole Thu Sep 23, 6:43 PM ET Add Strange News - AP to My Yahoo! JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Three students at Jacksonville University have been punished for installing a stripper pole in an on-campus apartment and taking pictures as fully clothed women performed on it at a party. A female student who won a dance contest also was disciplined. About a dozen women competed for a $100 Victoria's Secret gift certificate Sept. 11, said James Foster, a 20-year-old who hosted the party. None of the women disrobed. The men bought the steel pole from Home...

LINKS FROM DRUDGEREPORT: --------------------------------------------- NYU student jumps to her death; 6th this year... Princeton Student dead in dorm room... Woman found dead at Colorado State sorority... 19-year-old Montreal student dead in dorm...

Mo. College Opens Pet-Friendly Dorm Wing Fri Sep 3, 2:40 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! By SCOTT CHARTON, Associated Press Writer COLUMBIA, Mo. - Since coming to Stephens College, Abbey Road is making friends with her energetic personality, intense eyes and uninhibited kisses — especially when the little dog is thrown a slobber-slick tennis ball. The Jack Russell terrier moved in last week with owner Alexandra Geisler at the college's Prunty Hall, where the first floor debuted as a pet-friendly zone for dogs, cats and rabbits. "It means everything to me. I am so much...

Four University at Buffalo students have injured themselves falling or jumping out of bunk beds in the first month of school, an unusually high total that concerns school officials. In response, UB administrators are warning students to be careful when using the beds, and the school is ordering guardrails to install on all beds that don't already have them.The series of accidents is surprising to officials, who say UB typically receives one report a year of a student falling out of a bed. "It's an unprecedented situation for us," said Joseph J. Krakowiak, director of UB's residence halls. The students...

Dorm Room CoercionBy Joseph J. SabiaJoe Sabia | September 10, 2003 While liberal bias among Cornell’s faculty has been well-publicized, abuse of power by other University departments often goes unnoticed. The most politicized non-academic department at Cornell is the Department of Campus Life. Much of the liberal bias in Campus Life occurs due to the influence of Residence Hall Directors (RHDs). RHDs are full-time University employees who serve as direct supervisors for student Resident Advisors (RAs). RHDs make hiring and firing decisions and set guidelines for dorm events. Essentially, they control the home environment for thousands of undergraduate students. And...

Aggie dorm under fire for planning offensive party By The Associated Press (1/17/03 - COLLEGE STATION, Texas) -- Texas A&M University dormitory residents' plans to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a "ghetto party" were canceled after school officials learned of the event. Fliers at Walton Hall advertised the off-campus event, at which participants were to mimic stereotypes. Ron Sasse, director of A&M's department of residence life, said the event would have portrayed negative black stereotypes. "We're just having a hard time trying to understand why people would think this would be OK," Sasse told The Bryan-College...