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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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ACLU to review cohabitation case

The American Civil Liberties Union will review Thursday the case of two GW freshmen who are battling the University’s single-sex room policy.

Crawford Hall residents Clark Harding and Kathy Rooney said they lobbied Senior Assistant Dean of Students Mike Walker for a policy change at a Feb. 2 meeting.

Rooney said Walker told her if the University receives enough student and administrative support, a change in the policy could happen within a year and half.

Walker, however, could not give an update on the situation because he said changing housing policies is a long and slow process.

“Change is slow . especially of this magnitude,” Walker said.

Rooney said she hopes the ACLU will take the case when it reviews proposed litigation at its monthly meeting Thursday.

Rooney and Harding have continued to plead their case through e-mails to deans in the Community Living and Learning Center. They said they also plan to visit President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg during his open office hours this semester.

“We are trying to get out as much information as possible,” Rooney said. Last week, the two students were interviewed on WRGW about their case.

“There is the suggestion that we are trying to be ’90s campus radicals,” Rooney said. “Just because this change may occur, not everyone will have to cohabitate. We should have a right to choose.”

Both freshmen said they still intend to live on campus. Even though they will not be allowed to live together, the pair said they hope to get rooms in the same residence hall during the Feb. 20 housing lottery.

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