University of Virginia Library

Coed Dormitories

For coeducation to be the most valuable
experience possible for all members of the
University, the incoming women must be
fully integrated to the previously
male-oriented society. By isolating the
upperclass women in the Roberta
Gwathmey-Mary Munford dormitories the
University is failing to facilitate the
coeducation process here.

The Housing Committee recognized the
success of the coed dormitories for the
first-year class on Alderman Road and
Observatory Hill. They recommended that the
Gwathmey-Munford dormitories be
coeducated next year and that the five
upperclass dormitories on Alderman Road
also house both men and women. Their
recommendation was vetoed.

The reasons given by Administrative
spokesmen were the security factor and the
fact that Gwathmey House, named for former
faculty member Mrs. Roberta Gwathmey, was
just completed as a purely woman's
dormitory one year ago. We believe that these
arguments against coeducating
Gwathmey-Munford are not only invalid, but
that the positive results of coed dormitories
far outweigh the reluctance of the
Administration to change the status of all
women's dormitory.

Since Gwathmey House was only ready for
occupancy this year the Administration did
not feel that it would be proper to change its
status so soon after its completion, especially
since the bonds which financed the dormitory
were sold with the understanding that the
building was for women only. To that
future state bonds could not be sold because
purchasers would be afraid that their invested
capital would be spent in immoral
coeducation projects is ludicrous. To amortize
the debt incurred by the construction of
Gwathmey House, it must be full of students.
students there would confuse matters. We
disagree. No one in Security or the
Administration has thus far asserted that male
University students are security problems.
They have not been so in the coeducated
Alderman Road area. We believe that the
security of the women living in
Gwathmey-Munford would be improved if
there were male students close at hand to
serve as deterrents for a would-be attacker.

Steve Brickman, Chairman of Counselors,
has noted that coed dormitories "create a
more natural and livable environment for all
people concerned" and that too often women
isolated in Gwathmey-Munford or McKim
"never really get into the mainstream of
University life" nor do they have ready
chances to meet male University students in
an informal manner.

Coed dormitories are necessary
components of a full educational transition to
coeducation for the University. To fail to
coeducate the upperclass dormitories next
year is to fail to move forward. The
Administration should reverse its earlier
decision not to move in this positive
direction.

If it is coeducated, we confidently predict
that there would be no trouble in filling all of
the rooms. If the University is afraid that
coeducating Gwathmey so soon after
completion would mislead bond buyers, we
assert that the decision of the Board of
Visitors to coeducate the undergraduate
schools (the decision to fully coeducate
immediately came only after a Court order)
radically change the policy assumptions for
the whole Grounds.

The Department of Security had expressed
fears that coeducating Gwathmey-Munford
would pose large security problems.
Policemen now know that only women
should be around the two women's dorms and
that any males are suspect. To put male