U. students in coed rooms to be moved out

Several students who say Van Pelt College House officials allowed them to live in coed suites, despite violating Residential Living guidelines, will be asked to move after a fact-finding investigation is completed, a University official said yesterday. Christopher Dennis, the director of the college house program, said last night that although officials are still gathering facts in the case, Residential Living will ask the students to move "if it is determined that they are not in compliance with their occupancy agreements." In addition, Engineering senior Aaron Fuegi and College senior Sharon Jackson are listed as living in Van Pelt's Room 114. Residential Living guidelines specifically prohibit people of the opposite sex from living together in dormitories, unless they are married. Dennis said last night it is too early to tell whether any employees who knew of the situation hid the violations, and said he could not predict if Residential Living officials would be disciplined or fired. He added that the "early indication" is that some college house workers, including Van Pelt Administrative Fellow Catherine Johnson, might not have initially realized the arrangement broke the rules. But he added, "it is not crystal clear when people knew that." Dennis said Residential Living officials only became aware of the situation after the DP reported on the incident on Friday. It is not clear whether all of the students, or just either the males or females, would be asked to move. It is also unclear how much time the students would be given to move out. Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone refused comment yesterday, saying only that an investigation is underway. She would not speculate how long the investigation might take or what the results might be. But Dennis said the current arrangement will not be allowed to stand despite the students' allegation that Van Pelt workers told them they were living together as part of a pilot program evaluating coed dormitory living. None of the students, who are friends and are not involved romantically, would comment on the situation yesterday. In interviews conducted last week, however, the students maintained that they did not realize they were violating University policy and thought that the rules had been changed for the pilot program. College senior Gerst said she discussed the proposed coed apartment last year with then-Van Pelt Administrative Fellow Andrew Miller. "Van Pelt really didn't have a problem with it," Gerst said, but she added she and her suitemates "had to do a little bit of finagling." "This was proposed to us as an experimental living situation," she said. College junior Davidson said he and his three suitemates thought that "the rules had been changed," adding, "We were not aware that this was unofficial and we weren't given any cautionary advice."

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