Once the semester ends, Thomas Hall will close its doors as an all-male residence hall and open in the fall semester as co-ed.

Randall Bogard, the area director for Thomas Hall, said he believed opening the hall to a co-ed option would help bring in a fresh perspective.

“I am ecstatic about the new Thomas Hall,” Bogard said. “In regards to the program, I think that we will be seeing a lot more ideas from our female co-residents, a newer way to look at some things.”

Bogard said he thinks the overall experience for all Thomas residents would be better.

“With this being a co-ed hall, I think that a lot more people are going to have a great college experience, one similar to living at Taylor and Carman,” Bogard said.

In regard to the hiring of staff for the co-ed Thomas Hall, Bogard explained all the resident assistant positions have already been filled by both males and females.

While there has not been a greater influx of female applicants for desk assistant positions, Bogard said he felt confident that before the start of the new school year, he would see more applicants.

“We’ll be seeing more applicants as more students decide later in their academic career that Eastern Illinois is the right choice for them,” he said. “There will be a lot more applicants over the summer months, and I’m sure we’ll have a great staff.”

Mark Hudson, the director of University Housing and Dining Services, echoed Bogard’s thoughts, and said he believes a co-ed Thomas would help the college experience.

All resident assistants were assigned to residence halls and did not sign up for a particular hall, Hudson said.

Hudson also said he felt sure that as time went on, more and more people would come to Thomas Hall.

“Whenever you establish a new community, or make a change to a continuing community like Thomas, you have to give it time for word to spread,” he said. “A hall as great as Thomas, though, we will be seeing greater numbers applying for residency.”

Nick Fulco, a current Thomas Hall resident assistant, said the change would help diversify Thomas Hall.

Fulco is a sophomore elementary education major.

“It’s going to be a great change of pace,” Fulco said. “You never know what will happen, so that’s definitely something to be excited about.”

Dillon Holloway, another Thomas Hall resident assistant, discussed how the change was necessary for residence hall life.

Holloway is a sophomore sociology major.

“It’ll hopefully bring more people to the dorms next year,” Holloway said. “The new dorm will give girls another place to live, and obviously the guys will like living right next to girls.”

However, where the change to co-ed brought mostly excitement, there were a few small worries among the resident assistants.

“There’s going to definitely be a different feel to Thomas Hall—not necessarily a bad thing, just different,” Holloway said. “We’ve spent the last year dealing with guys, we know how to handle male residents, and it’s going to be an adjustment learning how to figure out girl problems for some of us.”

The two resident assistants also agreed that the possibility of going co-ed meant a new level of “rowdiness” brought to the residence hall, but said they are ready for the challenge.

Holloway also said there would always be female resident assistants to work with to solve these conflicts.

“With closer quarters, you never know what to expect,” Fulco said. “It could be anything really, even boyfriend-girlfriend problems.”

Bobby Galuski can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].