The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science houses two dormitories on campus: Frazer Hall which primarily houses male-identifying students, and Goen Hall which primarily houses female-identifying students.
For the most part, the students living in each dorm all struggle on their chemistry labs, eat the same pizza in the cafeteria and hope to win something at Weekly-Wednesday Night door prizes.
Though unique to each individual, the student experience at MSMS seems to vary only on what building they’re housed in. The differences between the two dorms goes much further than the state of the elevators or how often the fire alarms go off.
Poll results
A poll was conducted to gather students’ opinions on the differences between the two dorms. Of the 36 respondents, approximately 70% are Goen residents, while 30% live in Frazer. No matter where students reside, all unanimously agreed they’ve noticed differences between the two dorms, believe one dorm’s rule enforcement is stricter than the other and believe the stricter dorm is Goen.
(Graphic by Maple Griffin)
Frazer Hall Director Edward Allen said students have talked to him about the discrepancies before. After seeing the data, he said he now believes it may be an issue.
“It’s been brought to my attention before. Some of the Frazer residents have come back and said the Goen residents have it worse.” Allen said.
Inequality in the differences between Goen and Frazer
Many students have noted the differences in the state of the buildings, such as heating and cooling or the sensitivity of the fire alarms. This year alone, both dorms have had their separate troubles, including Goen being evacuated in November due to a carbon monoxide leak and Februrary’s second-floor Frazer flooding. However, many of these issues are likely to be fixed in the upcoming renovation efforts.
While these issues are out of student control, the atmosphere of each dorm is dependent upon students and staff living in each building.
Senior Ivie Kirkland, a Goen resident, said it seems Frazer residents get more freedom when it comes to signing out and cleanliness.
“For example, Mr. Allen came into Goen, and he said, ‘Wow, you guys really take your work service seriously.’ It seems like the boys don’t really do much in their dorm versus girls getting [Level 1 and 2 infractions] for simply forgetting to do their work service in a timely fashion,” Kirkland said. “Also, with signing out, [Goen RAs] really make sure they enforce when you’re going out to town, you have to go in groups of five and they check your sign outs. If you’re signing out to go to Walmart, they won’t let you sign out for four hours. They have to make sure that everything lines up versus in Frazer they describe it as a kind of ‘Just give it to Mr. Allen, he signs it and it’s whatever, right.’ I think those are the major differences that upset some of the Goen residents.”
Senior Iysiahs York who lives in Frazer said he has noticed these differences.
“I think that Goen is a lot stricter. They’re always questioning where you’re going, who you’re going out with and what time you’ll be back,” York said. “It’s all specific. I understand that it’s for the job, but in Frazer, they just look at your card and sign it. Sometimes they’ll question but only if you’re … an offender of something really bad before. So even then, even if they find something questionable, they don’t really ask about it.”
Negative impacts on the student body
With the difference in levels of rule enforcement between the two dorms, many of the students included in the poll said they felt this creates a divide within the student body.
Junior Reagan Forge, a Goen resident, said she noticed this divide due to the difference in levels of strictness.
“Goen staff are very strict, if not overbearing. What I hear about Frazer Hall is very lax compared to my experience in Goen,” Forge said. “I believe these differences serve to further divide our student body, not only between Goen and Frazer, but also with Goen residents and Goen Hall staff.”
While many students share this sentiment about Goen faculty, Allen said he believes the Goen Hall Director Latoya Bledsoe is doing the best for the students.
“She’s been here the longest out of everybody in Res life. She still teaches me to this day, but I hate that there’s a divide as far as discipline,” Allen said.
While the strictness is centered in Goen Hall, some Frazer residents said they have noticed how the inequity can hinder many Goen students.
Senior Roman Luckett, a Frazer resident, walks to nearby restaurant China Royal every Friday with a few of his friends. One of these students lives in Goen. Because of this, Luckett said he has seen Goen’s strictness in signing out through their weekly trips.
“The disparity in rules enforcing does cause some division and animosity between the two dorms; however, it is universally understood that the cause of these issues is mainly in the administration of Goen,” Luckett said. “I’ve personally seen and been affected by Goen’s strictness. It’s honestly extremely detrimental to student life. For instance, we have to arrange someone to take the Goen member in our China Royal group back to MSMS early because she’s not allowed to sign out past 5:30 p.m., even though there’s a rule saying you can if you’re in large groups. But because Goen is so strict, they disregard this rule.”
Apart from signing out for personal reasons or on the weekends, some Goen students said they have had trouble signing out even for school activities and functions.
Senior Heaven Alvarado, a Goen resident, said she thinks this can affect student life, academic performance and even student’s sleep schedules.
“With academics, unlike what I’ve heard reported from my Frazer friends, when a person in Goen is asleep during room checks, we are nightly woken up to ascertain our presence, disrupting our sleep schedules. Certain Goen [RAs] are stricter about privilege plans, and my Goen friend couldn’t go to a soccer game because of their privilege plan, whereas multiple people in Frazer have told me their RAs couldn’t care less,” Alvarado said. “We also are held to higher standards of punctuality and cleanliness as compared to the Frazer dorms. All of the students should be treated equally, this blatant favoritism is ridiculous.”
The strictness of Goen Hall puts its residents under an increased level of stress Frazer residents don’t have to worry about. One example is when students are running late to get back to campus. Goen residents are required to call the dorm office to inform the staff they will be late and what time they will be expected to return to campus; however, Frazer residents aren’t held to the same standard.
Senior Julian Gallo, a Frazer resident, said he appreciates the privilege living in Frazer grants him and thinks it actually helps students be safer.
“I like the fact that if my mentorship is running a bit late and I’m in the car driving back, I don’t have to try and call them on the road saying I’ll be 20 minutes late and risk getting in an accident,” Gallo said. “I just know that it’ll be okay if I’m 20 minutes late.”
Possible solutions
It is undeniable that a large percentage of the student body feels Goen and Frazer are governed unequally, and many have been or are consistently affected by this disparity. The big question now is how MSMS can try to even out this imbalance to create an environment where all students feel safe, respected and treated fairly.
The path to achieve this goal may be a tricky one as it needs to cut through old bias patterns and misogyny, and many students have ideas on how this should be achieved.
Senior Sydney Beane, a Goen resident, said she believes the way this should happen is by Goen Hall staff relaxing their enforcement of the rules.
“I don’t think this means Frazer should in turn become stricter, I think Goen needs to become more relaxed,” Beane said. “This is mainly because of Goen leadership. You can see the entirety of the staff shift when the leader fusses at them or threatens them.”
Sabrina Sims, a senior Goen resident, said she hopes the dorm administrators can meet in the middle in terms of strictness.
“Can we find a happy medium? I think some of the dorm precautions are necessary, but at the same time I feel like Frazer can be a little bit too relaxed,” Sims said. “Like, why is your room disgusting? Where are your bed sheets?”
Ultimately, whether the administrators in the dorms are deemed too strict or too relaxed, they should be enforcing rules equally. MSMS students have a unique high school experience, and they should be united regardless of which dorm they live in.
“As a Frazer resident, I understand my viewpoint is merely supplemental to that of a Goen resident, but I do hope that both the overbearing nature of Goen’s rule enforcing and the negligent enforcing of Frazer’s are rectified without imposing more unjust practices on either group,” Luckett said. “To call for the unjust enforcing of rules in Frazer to be ‘fair’ would be just as illogical as calling for Goen to also neglect rules. I think a mutual standard should be established for true justice to stand.”
In response to the data and students’ opinions, Allen said he wants to hear more of student’s solutions and proceed in the best way.
“It’s given me a lot to think about. I’m going to try to go about it the correct way,” Allen said.
