Ellington

The University of Arizona debating males and females sharing dorm rooms, a University of Houston professor and his family moving into the dorms, and an Alaska tribe requesting artifacts back from the University of Pennsylvania were just some of the news from college campuses around the nation this week.

University of Arizona (UA) considers gender-neutral dorm rooms

At UA, officials are mulling over an up-and-coming style of dorm rooms: coed housing. This type of room assignment is designed to make gay students more comfortable, The Arizona Republic reported.

“We want to make sure that everyone feels safe and everyone feels welcomed and any kind of educational benefit is available to all,” Jim Van Arsdel, UA’s assistant vice president for student affairs and university housing, said to the Republic.

However, many conservatives oppose the idea, saying that sexual harassment and assaults would actually increase, the Republic reported.

“That’s completely at odds with common sense,” David French, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale-based Christian organization that seeks to preserve family values, said to the Republic.

The program, however, would be introduced as a pilot that caters to approximately 22 students, and these students would need to request the option. Sexual orientation questions would not be on the application.

Several other schools have begun offering the option, such as Dartmouth and UC Berkeley.

University of Houston (UH) professor moves into dorms

After not living in the dorm system for more than 20 years, UH associate professor of history Raul Ramos is at it again, this time with his wife, two children and dogs, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The school, like many others, is attempting to improve interactions between faculty and students by encouraging a more informal style of communicating. This, they believe, will improve graduation rates in the long run, the Chronicle reported.

“I didn’t know how parking works, how the dining halls work, how financial aid works,” Ramos said to the Chronicle. “Now I do.”

Provost John Antel said it makes the campus “more personal,” the Chronicle reported. Rice University has a similar program, which puts faculty members in each residential building on campus.

“We’re a big, urban research university,” Antel said to the Chronicle. “It can be intimidating.”

Ramos’ wife, Elizabeth Chiao, told the Chronicle the children and dogs are exciting for the students who are far away from home.

“They say, I miss my dogs,” said Elizabeth Chiao, who grew up on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, where her father was a physicist. “They want to walk the dogs, or to babysit. It brings up their home life.”

Alaska tribe asks University of Pennsylvania (UP) to return sacred artifacts

A tribe in Alaska has insisted the UP Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology return items that the tribe holds sacred, The Victoria Advocate reported Monday.

While the tribe has asked for the collection of about 40 artifacts back, the museum has said it will return eight of them, the Advocate reported. Some of the items include a shaman’s owl mask and a brass loon spirit hat.

A federal review committee acting under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act voted Nov. 19 to recommend the university return the items to the tribe.

“As long as there’s one of us around, it belongs to us,” Marlene Johnson, a T’akdeintaan elder, said to the Advocate.

The items were purchased for $500 in 1924 by a Tlingit man named Louis Shotridge who worked for the university, the Advocate reported.

“I guess he believed he was doing the right thing by preserving it,” Review Committee Chair Rosita Worl said to the Advocate. “Whereas a good Tlingit wouldn’t do that. They would see the most important thing is it’s used in our ceremonies and see it as sacred objects.”

Reach Weekender Editor Kristen Steenbeeke at news@dailyuw.com.