Winston-Salem State has co-ed residence halls for the students, but does not allow for members of the opposite sex to live in the same room.
Currently there are five co-ed dorms on campus: Rams Commons, Gleason-Hairston Terrace, Foundation Heights, Wilson Hall, and the recently co-ed Pegram.
So if co-ed dorms are accepted, is co-ed cohabitation around the corner?
According to the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, 30 U.S. campues provide gender-neutral housing.
“I think that having a roommate of opposite sex in your dorm would not go over too well,”said Cornelius Hector, a junior.
“First off they are going to consider higher pregnancy and STD rates. Plus the possibility of rape and the fact that some roommates might not know each other, which makes it worse. Plus parents will not allow a thing like this to happen,” Hector said.
Freshman Brianna Galbreath agrees with Hector.
“I could not see myself living in the same living conditions as a boy because I am a girl and I feel that would just create some more drama in the residence halls,” said Galbreath.
A recent poll on Thenewsargus.com produced some interesting results.
Ninety-two percent of those who responded said WSSU should not allow co-ed habitation in its dorms.
However the poll was open to parents, alumni, and citizens, as well as students.
“Currently here at WSSU we do not have (co-ed) cohabitation on campus,” said Linda D. Inman, WSSU Housing Director.
“The reason why we do not have this going on is because some of the parents may not like the idea of a male and female staying in the same room, but instead in some of our residence halls we have both the sexes living in the same residence,” said Inman.
According to Inman, there is no coed cohabitation in the UNC System.
SGA?president-elect Harold Respass believes that it is unlikely WSSU will allow cohabitation in the near future.
” HBCU’s are usually very conservative and this will probably never be a sweeping reality, especially in the Bible Belt,” he said. “It would save a lot of headaches in terms of housing facilities and cause headaches with pregnancy rates but with every situation, there are pros and cons.”