Freshmen enrolling at Mississippi State University and the University Honors Program in the fall will find an alternate choice in their housing application.
Gerald Tice, director of Housing and Residence Life, and Tom Gilgreen, Area coordinator, announced Tuesday night that Garner Hall will become the first co-ed residence hall on the Starkville campus.
According to Jack White, director of the University Honors program, the organization has been interested in an Honors’ residence hall for quite a long time. The Honors office has received many inquiries from incoming freshmen as to the possibilities of co-residential housing arrangements, White said.
Serious discussions toward this project began last summer, and the decision was made final in mid-November. The Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning approved special living arrangements such as co-residential housing for state colleges in the summer of 1988, according to Tice. A similar program at the University of Southern Mississippi was set up at that time and began operation in fall of 1988.
Once the College Board had approved it, the recommendation for co-residential housing at MSU went to Roy Ruby, vice president of Student Affairs. Plans then reached the Executive Council, according to Tice. Lorenda Krhut, director of Housing and Residence Life at Southern, said their arrangements in Scott Hall East and Scott Hall West, a campus residence hall, were not true co-residential housing.
Females are housed in the east wing and males in the west. Scott Hall houses international students, honors students, graduate students and students above normal college ages and is completely upperclassmen. “From past experience at another university, there were more problems with visitation violations with freshmen in this situation than upperclassmen,” she said. “Upperclassmen have the maturity to handle it a lot better.”
Krhut said they had not experienced any problems with the situation other than the typical noise pollution. Using one building, according to Krhut, is an asset for saving utilities and staff during the holidays, due to the elimination of separate housing.
The selection of Gamer as the MSU Co-residential hall was based on the architectural arrangement. The hall is divided into two separate wings by a central lobby. Female residents will occupy the east wing while male students will live in the west wing.
The lobby will be a common ground and will have a manned desk open 24 hours a day. Garner will have eight residence assistants, doubling the present four. Electronic card readers will be installed at each door of the hall for security purposes.
