An ode to Broward Hall, the last all-girls dorm at Florida State

RIP to our freshmen memories

Since the founding of universities all across America, gender segregated dorms have been a norm in many college settings. Guys and girls used to always have a place of their own in community style dorms, but in January of 2017, FSU Housing officially announced the discontinuation of any all-girl housing options, making every dorm on campus co-ed. With a rise in demand for suite style dorms and a decline in interest in gender specific housing, FSU has declared an ending to the all-girl dorms on their campus.

At the beginning of the decline, Florida State switched the all-girl dorm from Jennie-Murphee Hall, to the much smaller Broward Hall. This original transition went from 328 isolated ladies to a mere 135 in Broward, the second smallest hall on campus. Becoming the only three floor sanctuary on campus for girls to run their own “no boys allowed” club.

As a previous resident of the all-girls hall my freshman year, I’m actually pretty upset that this hidden luxury is being taken away from future Lady Noles. For a mass majority of the residents of the all-girl dorm, it wasn’t their first choice, but after moving in and coping with a lack of testosterone, they often began to happily rejoice in the lack of male presence.

No boys, no noise

Broward is by far the quietest dorm on campus, and that is a luxury many overlook when picking their dorm. College students can be rowdy, but after living in an all-girls dorm, I realized girls don’t feel a sudden urge to make a ruckus “for the hell of it” as often as our male counterparts, therefore keeping the hall’s volume to a minimum.

There was also the luxury of knowing every night was going to be a quiet even after everyone went out. Compared to drunk guys, drunk girls tend to be easier to manage, and remain pretty quite for the most part. There was never the fear of a drunk freshman running around banging on doors or playing drunk baseball in the hallway at 2am. Drunk girls were also easier to manage because you could lead them to a bed, put on some Grey’s Anatomy, and you were good to go. No problems here.

One giant closet for all

Girls love sharing closets to better their own fashion senses. Being surrounded by a variety of different styles and 135 other girls, your going-out outfit options were endless. For all the weekends that you want to dress to impress, you would never need to repeat an outfit.

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Ask me if I care what the ladies think

Another great perk of living in the all-girl dorm was the joy of knowing I didn’t have to impress anyone on my floor. The all-girls dorm gave me the option to walk around looking like a hot mess and not have a care in the world. I used to see girls fresh out of the shower, wet hair, makeup looking like a raccoon, and the ugliest XL tee you’d ever see. Girls dgaf if other girls are impressed by them.

Sexile? I don’t know her.

Most importantly, there was an enormous weight off your shoulders knowing that it’s almost completely illegal for your roommate to sexile you. Of course, with the all-girl dorm it becomes a limited access place for guys to enter. Though there are times we wanted some muscle around, not having them there wasn’t always a bad thing. Come and go as you want all day, that’s when we’ll get our fix, but knowing my bed and my room were all mine after 12am was a blessing most people on campus don’t always have.

To be honest, Broward Hall kind of made me feel like a badass bitch. There aren’t many places in this world where women have the upper hand or power over men, but this was the one place we could dish out what was being served to us. Sure boys could come in during the daylight, but at the end of the day it was nice knowing they couldn’t, and it helped us realize we didn’t want them, nor did we need them. Bye, bye boys.

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