The Lindenwood student representatives recently gave a presentation about coed housing to the university’s board of directors.

LSGA and the Residence Hall Association created the presentation, said LSGA Speaker of the Senate Madeline Pullen. Dr. Ryan Guffey approached the organizations and asked if they would like to present to the board.

“This was an important meeting simply because this is the first time students were able to present to our board about their perspective on it and why they think it could be of value,” said Guffey, vice president for student development.

He said that they’re exploring the idea of some residence halls being female or male by floor. Questions like should all residence halls be coed and about how visitation would be handled are part of the conversation.

Pullen and Guffey said that structurally, some dorms aren’t currently fit for coed housing because of things like communal showers.

According to a survey sent out to students by Residential Life last Tuesday, the university asked students about their preferred visitation hours, the value of coeducational housing, if they’d like male/female alternating floors, should all or some dorms remain male or female and if they think there should be a specific residence hall for honors students.

“Housing is trying to create a living and learning environment,” Guffey said. In trying to tailor the needs of many students, support animals were a recent addition to the university.

Northwest Missouri State University currently offers gender-neutral and coed housing to its upperclassmen, according to its website, and a 2015 Fox 2 article says the University of Missouri planned to test a new gender-neutral housing option last fall.

“We didn’t just start with a few students; we started across the university, and across every level within the university so that everyone is having the conversation at the exact same time so that we can bring about a result, whatever that result may be,”  Pullen said.