Coed Residents Happy In North House Poll

According to a recent, poll, many of the students in North House like the social effects of coed living, but they can't agree on what those effects are.

In a questionnaire distributed to the residents of North House on the impact of co-residency, only one woman among 54 men and women responding to the poll said she was not happy with the coed situation in her dorm, North House has 189 women and 68 men.

"The questionnaire was not supposed to be a scientific sampling of students,"said Alan T. Nelson, the North House tutor who sponsored the poll as a take-off point for a non-credit seminar on dorm relationships. Only one-sixth of the questionnaires were returned but, he said, "some trends were clear."

The results of the questionnaire indicate that many students feel the presence of an "Incest taboo" between "brothers and sisters" on the hall. Yet more than 90 per cent of those polled felt the coed living situation had favorably affected their formation of "sexual relationships."

"Perhaps people are so happy because they see members of the opposite sex as people for the first time," Catherine Hart '72, a resident of North House, said.

David M. Sloan '71, also living in North House, attributes the possibility of an "incest taboo" to a separation of two worlds-the dorm clique and outsiders. "People don't often bring dates to the dining room," Sloan said. "It's unfair to bring outsiders into a world where you know people so much more."

"The main thing," Nelson said, "is that co-residency has affected different people differently."