With the renovation of Sherley Hall underway and plans set for remodeling the interior of Colby Hall, incoming residents will be left without an option for single-sex housing.

Craig Allen, director of Residential Services, said the dorm will open coed next fall to make room for male students who will be displaced by the closing of Milton Daniel Hall for renovation. After the two dorms reopen, a decision will be made whether to keep the dorms coed or make a return to single-sex status.

This problem will leave many students, especially incoming freshmen women and men, in limbo. Parents who prefer that their daughters and sons live in traditional single-sex housing won’t have that option, and students wanting the experience of living in a single-sex residence hall will be denied that chance, an opportunity available at most of TCU’s peer schools.

If the university is going to require freshmen and sophomores to live on campus or in the Grand Marc, it should provide students with options for both single-sex and coed housing, instead of boxing students into what they may see as an uncomfortable living situation.

Commend the university for making a concerted effort to increase its residential capacity – the millions it has spent on improvements have created a beautiful Campus Commons area and provided much-needed improvement to Clark Hall and soon to Colby, Sherley and Milton Daniel halls, but it should not focus too much on the future while losing sight of students who are here now. Students need to have a comfortable, safe place to live to succeed in school, and it is the university’s responsibility to make sure that they are given a satisfactory place to lay their heads.

Managing Editor Joe Zigtema for the editorial board