University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 12, 1973
3
Organized Housing Thriving Under Relaxed Rules
By ANN McFERREN
BY ANN MEE BARTLEY
Kansas Staff Reporter
Organized living at the University of Kansas is making a comeback after a period of decreased popularity at the beginning of the 1970s, according to University housing officials and students involved in organized housing.
"Organized housing, with its closing hours and structured visitation policies, makes it possible to attend the interests of the young people at that time," said J. J. Wilson, director of the dormitory system. "So, at the time attitudes were changing, apartment living became the 'in'
Vusan said he had seen some students try apartment living and later return to residence hall living. Each had his own reason for trying apartment living, but many found they didn't like living outside of campus as well as they thought they would, be said.
Residence hall occupancy this fall is 85 per cent, comparable to what it was last fall, according to Wilson. Occupancy was not as high as he would have liked, but Wilson said there was a slow drift back to higher occupancy rates.
CLOSING AND VISTATION hours have been greatly liberalized, which has helped bring back the popularity of residence hall living, he said. All residence halls have 24-hour visitation on weekends and many have 24-hour visitation throughout the week.
Changes in many aspects of residence ball living have been made since 1970 and should have been made much sooner, Wilson said.
Housing officials, Wilson said, think the average student needs an atmosphere in which he can easily have contact with other students and in which he doesn't have to add housekeeping duties to the load of schoolwork he is already carrying.
Single rooms are increasing in popularity each year, Wilson said. This year, 3,908 of 4,578 spaces are occupied. Singles occupy 755 of these spaces. In 1971, only 882 of the total spaces were occupied by singles.
"Most of the students who come to college had a room of their own when they lived at home and are not used to sharing one room with someone else," Wilson said. "We are now giving students single rooms when they apply for them."
IN THE FALL of 1972, Hashinger Hall was opened as a resident center for the creative arts. The facilities were created to provide an opportunity and an environment for residents to participate in artistic activities at the residence hall setting, according to Wilson.
Housing officials hope that in the future more programs and educational opportunities that are related to specific needs may be made within the residence hall system, he said.
THE ALL-FEMALE and all-male residence hills indicated an increase in occupancy over last year, Smith said. There were few male spaces still available, she said.
Gertrude Sellards Pearson and Corbin Hallas also have more occupants this year than last year, Smith said. The facilities in these two residence halls are in the process rooms, remodeled to provide practice rooms, sewing rooms and an exercise room, she said.
Wilson said he thought there would be a trend away from coed living at KU in the future. Although the number of students lived in coed halls at KU probably will not drop significantly in the next year or two, he said, there has already been an increase in
the occupancy of all-male and all-female balls at KU.
Wilson said he was certain the trend back to organized living would continue in the wake of the attacks.
"We have been slow to recognize and meet the needs of students, but we are changing our programs accordingly, and we're going back to a back-to-organized housing." Wilson said.
FRATERNITY OCCUPANCY was low between 1969 and 1771, according to Bruce Frazey, Hill City senior and president of the Interfraternity Council.
"There was a different attitude on campus during that time and fraternities were no longer seen as relevant," Frazzy said, and he enacted the privacy of their own apartment."
This fall, fraternity pledge classes were the largest they had been in four years, according to Frazey. The number of men living in fraternities is 200 more than in 1971, he said, and the houses are 75 per cent full, compared to 50 per cent in 1971.
Fraternity membership was still high in 1963, but began to decline after that, accentuated by the death of a member.
nities closed at KU because of small memberships and large debts.
Most of the fraternities re-evaluated their programs to determine just what they had learned.
Frazey said he thought there would be another large increase in membership next fall. He said he thought this fall would be the result of a number of successful years for fraternity memberships.
Although sororites at KU did not experience a noticeable decrease in membership in the last five years, the 1973 rush was one of the largest in recent years.
according to Pam Troiw, Fariburh Beu,
鲁inc and Sidney Towne.
In 1971, sororites saw a slight decline in membership. However, most of the houses still filled their quotas, Troup said. Almost the same number of girls are pledged each year because of the limitation of spaces available, she said.
ONE KU SORORITY chapter has closed since 1968, according to Linda Jones, panhellenic adviser and assistant dean of women.
Jones said there also have been some
misconceptions about the sorority system, particularly concerning stricteness of regulations. Each house is a self-governing unit, she said, and visitation regulations in most houses have become more intense in recent years. None of the houses has closing hours.
Jones said she thought sorority membership would continue to increase in the future. She said an increasing number of women appeared to be interested in the type of sorority that she had wanted, but that the opportunity to live in a security was available only while women were in college.
Trek—a strange name, but a great shoe. Made by Clarks of England. For getting around the campus in comfort try a pair of Treks. In brown leather or sand suede. In both men's and women's sizes.
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