RHA voted in a meeting last night to gauge student interest in mixed-sex housing in dorms, South Campus Commons and University Courtyard via an electronic survey.If students show enough interest, mixed-sex housing could eventually become a reality because the Department of Resident Life does not have any regulations that would prevent males and females from living together, said Steve Petkas, Resident Life Associate Director for Student and Staff Development.”We have it established that in traditional dorms there are either guys or girls in each wing, and each suite is either male or female,” Petkas said, but added there are no written rules that force Resident Life to maintain this precedent.South Campus Commons would be the easiest place to implement mixed-sex housing because some units contain four bedrooms and two bathrooms. While it isn’t a rule that each sex has to have its own exclusive bathroom, students are more likely to feel comfortable with separate bathrooms and be more likely to support the change, Petkas said.However, depending on the results of the survey and what Resident Life decides to do in the future, it is conceivable that traditional dorms on the campus could also end up mixed-sex either by room – which is unlikely- or by wing. The Residence Halls Association currently wants to get feedback from students to see if there is any demand for mixed-sex housing. The issue was first brought up three years ago, but RHA determined there was not enough interest to pursue the issue. RHA will send out a survey later in the semester and then use the results to decide in the fall whether to continue working on the issue.Resolution sponsor and Resident Life Advisory Team chairman Jeff Zygler said the survey has not been finalized, but as of now it asks students where they think mixed-sex housing should be available, at what age students should be able to request it, and with what mixed-sex housing situations they would consider comfortable.Because the resolution aims at gathering data instead of implementing any policy, members unanimously voted in favor.RHA has not yet decided to whom they will distribute the survey, but they are currently working with statistician Joann Prosser, Resident Life Director of Assessment and Research for Student and Staff Development. Also in the meeting, RHA rejected a resolution that would have added fire extinguishers to the approximately 150 campus units, not owned by Capstone, with kitchens.Junior criminology and criminal justice and communications major Paul-Alexandre Rischard, who wrote the resolution, hoped that adding fire extinguishers would help limit damage in the case of a kitchen fire, which he said is much more likely to occur than a fire in a traditional dorm without a kitchen.Other members feared the effects of placing fire extinguishers in dorms. Extinguishers were available in all dorms until the 1980s. They were removed because students tampered with the devices too much and because they gave students a false sense of security that made them more inclined to fight fires themselves, Petkas said. Members suggested writing a new resolution that would provide for a fire safety education program instead of fire safety equipment.Contact reporter Megan Eckstein at ecksteindbk@gmail.com.