The commencement of the fall semester saw male students officially joining the Lawson Ladies after 46 years of Lawson Hall being a female residence hall.

Mark Hudson, the director of University Housing and Dining Services, said he was pleased with how easily Lawson transitioned to becoming a coed residence.

“All we had to do was the assignment process and put men in there instead of women, so it has worked out fine,” Hudson said.

The change came about in January after the Residence Hall Association voted on a solution to the room imbalance, which was brought about by Thomas Hall converting to a coed building.

“In the last two years we have converted two buildings. Thomas Hall used to be an all men’s residence hall and last school year we converted that to be coed,” Hudson said.

“This year we did Lawson because of the interest, but also because we needed to balance our male/female space availability,” Hudson said.

Hudson explained the 350 students living in Lawson are coed by floor.

“There are four women’s floors and three men’s floors,” he said. “The largest percentage of any class are freshman, but there are upperclassmen in the building as well.”

Laura Imbirowicz, resident director of Lawson Hall, echoed Hudson’s sentiments, expressing her happiness with the transition.

She said that she was impressed with the amount of interest male residents had shown in becoming involved with life in Lawson.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in males wanting to get involved in hall council, which is really great,” she said.

Kenneth Barbee, a sophomore amongst the first men to live in Lawson, said he was eager to get involved.

“I work at the desk, and plan on joining hall council and becoming an RHA rep as well,” he said.

Barbee, who previously resided in Taylor Hall, said that he was enjoying living in Lawson so far.

“Me and a couple of buddies wanted to triple, and we ended up getting one of the nicest rooms here,” Barbee said.

Ashley McCray, a desk assistant in Lawson, has resided in the building since 2012 and said that having the males around has been good.

“I feel like it’s more sociable here since they’ve come,” McCray said. “Working here at the desk is actually really helpful because I interact with all of them coming from the steps or down the elevator.”

Despite having lived in Lawson when it was a female residence, McCray said she did not feel things were any different now.

“It’s just getting used to them being here, but other than that it hasn’t been a major change,” she said.

Now that the Lawson Ladies are sharing their building with men, the decision to change their name has yet to be determined.

“Our hope is once we get our hall council established, that by the end of this semester we have a new nickname and maybe even a new mascot,” Imbirowicz said.

Laura Hamlyn can be reached at 581-2812 or lkhamlyn@eiu.edu.