To make campus a welcome environment for its new coeds in 1970, La Salle’s preparations naturally entailed discussions about some substantial academic and social considerations.

But, ultimately, the bulk of the conversations boiled down to some real talk about practical issues—like adequate ladies’ rooms and accommodations in the residence halls.

Decades later, these matters are still vivid memories for those on campus at the time.

Potty Talk

Br. Emery: One little note, which is sort of not important, but I remember distinctly, our office as Evening Dean was on the first floor of College Hall where the current School of Business is… I, myself, had them build the large ladies’ room, which is of some distinction—it’s still there. It’s right on the side corridor facing 20th Street.

Br. Charles: One thing you had to have was bathrooms. That was the big thing when we started coeducation.

Br. Emery: We had to make certain adjustments. I had to get the first ladies’ room upstairs. There was one in the basement, of course, but that was it … the place had existed since 1928 or something. Well, they did have a small (bathroom) for secretaries.

Gauss: There was one toilet in (College Hall), but only the secretaries, I think, had a key for that. One in Holroyd, and then there was a ladies’ room in the Union. So the ladies’ room in the Union became a place where we met, where the girls would sit and we would have lunch there and stuff because unless there were 10 of you, going to the cafeteria was a little too scary.

Dorm Life

Fitzpatrick: I arrived in the fall of 1970 as a resident in the only female dorm at the time, St. Edward, close to where they were planning on building Hayman Hall. There were three floors of women, and the school had gone out of its way to make us feel welcome, even adding old-school hairdryers that you could sit under in the hall bathrooms.

Br. Emery: The longest discussion in terms of going coed was in terms of adequacy of hair dryers and stuff like that, in the St. Edward and St. Francis dorms. I mean I know that sounds silly, but … it kind of had to be done.

Fitzpatrick: There were about 50 women residents in the dorms and about 800 male residents. After our freshman year, they began housing women across Olney Avenue in the north dorms. They then put women on just the third floors of the three-floor dorms to begin with, and so by our second year, the dorms were truly coed. Dorm loyalty was a big thing and fast friendships were formed.

Bones: My dorm was a three-story structure with boys on the first two floors and girls on the third floor. Two students shared a room that had cinderblock walls. You could decorate your room however you wanted, and most people covered the stark cinderblock with posters of musical groups or colorful Indian fabrics. The whole floor shared one pay phone and one large bathroom with stall toilets and about eight showers. …

There were very few rules in the dorms and definitely no curfews. There were no restrictions that I recall about boys being on the girls’ floor or vice versa. We used to have water balloon fights at 3 a.m. with the guys in our dorm, and I remember having the time of my life!

Fitzpatrick: I think La Salle was smart in that we had no curfews from the very beginning. Many schools in Philadelphia still had curfews for women dorms at the time, but I think La Salle was ahead of its time and saw the writing on the wall. I believe dorms allowed visitors of the opposite sex in our rooms until midnight during the week and 2 a.m. on the weekends, so there were a few rules.