Results and answer to September's trivia question:

The question was: In what year did Binghamton University's residence halls go co-ed?

Thanks to those who responded. Nobody guessed correctly on this one, but thanks to Allan Suchinsky '63 we did get some funny reminiscences (see below).

Answer: Binghamton's residence halls were grouped into residential colleges with designated faculty masters in the fall of 1968. At that time, the residence halls that made up Dickinson and Hinman Colleges went coed by wing; males lived in one wing and females in the other wing. Newing College's residence halls remained single sex until the fall of 1969, when all residence halls went coed by wing.

Since then, the residential colleges have progressed to co-ed by floor and co-ed by alternating rooms or suites.

-- from Lynda J. Shoemaker, coordinator of Housing Services, Residential Life

The best stories relate to before the residence halls went coed, according to Allan Suchinsky '63. "For instance," he wrote, "just before first semester finals in, I believe, 1961, when the nighttime air was quite cold, the snow was deep, and everyone was tired of studying, a few brave males decided to make Harpur history. They initiated the first ever, and perhaps last, panty raid on one of the women's residence halls.

"What a great study break. Everyone closed the books and came out to watch the fun. As a few pairs of panties floated toward the ground, everyone cheered, and a few faculty advisors who were on campus at the time seemed nonplussed as they warily hung around the dorm doorways hoping no one would attempt to break in and make off with a whole bunch of laundry.

"Then there was the time in Johnson Hall when my date and I were in a remote corner of the lobby as curfew hit and the doors got locked. In retrospect, I probably should not have panicked and asked to be released. I still wonder what that night might have been like if I had done otherwise. . . . "

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