Jairdin Engen | Assistant News Editor

Starting next fall Buena Vista University (BVU) will begin implementing a plan that will allow students to live in the suites with members of the opposite sex. The plan was approved on Monday, March 3 after starting in Student Senate and working its way to the President’s Council for final approval.

“It seemed to me like it was a well-reasoned, a well thought out idea, and I was more than willing to entertain it and ask colleagues and other people on campus their thoughts and ideas about it,” Associate Dean of Students and Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Dale Scully said.

The suites are made up of three, two-person bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, and one community lounge area, allowing a total of six people to live in one suite. At the moment all 6 people must be of the same gender, but the new format will allow one of the two-person rooms to be occupied by people of a different sex than the other two rooms. Each room will still be single sex, but the entire suite will not be restricted.

“It’s not anything that’s too radical; it’s exactly what we have in all the other dorms, just in the suites,” Student Senator and sophomore Miranda Wallace said.

The proposal will start being implemented next year in 4 Resident Assistant (RA) suites as a way to help them grow accustomed to the change and see how the idea will work out. The next year they will add more suites to the plan over a two year trial period if all goes well.

The process behind the new plan began with a proposal written by Student Senate. Each member of the Policy Advisory Committee, or (PAC) helped write the proposal which was then presented to Student Senate for approval. Once it had been approved by Senate, it was talked over and presented to Scully and Director of Residence Life and Housing Dijon DeLaPorte.

“We especially liked the proposal because it dealt with a plan that had a sequence of events,” Scully said. “What was indicated to us was that there is a lot of crossovers in friendships, and there’s a lot of young men and young women that are very, very tight and very, very close, and would like the opportunity to be able to live in the same suite with one another.”

This plan is not intended to make people uncomfortable or force them to do something that they don’t want to. The co-ed option is intended to be an option for those who want to take it, but will not be necessary if unwanted. The proposal is simply to help those who want more freedom in which friends they are able to share a suite with.

Graphic by Justice Gage