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Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd won’t be entertaining any overnight lovers – at least not on the campus of Alabama State University.

Boyd, 58, Alabama State University’s first female president, signed a contract presented by the university’s trustees that included an unusual – and perhaps sexist – stipulation: She can’t have lovers stay overnight at her residence on campus.

“For so long as Dr. Boyd is President and a single person, she shall not be allowed to cohabitate in the President’s residence with any person with whom she has a romantic relation,” the contract stated.

Some women were quick to criticize Alabama State University,  an historically black college, as a throw-back to the dark ages and a setback for women’s equality issues.

Lisa Maatz, vice president of government relations at the American Association of University Women, told NPR that she would be “amused” if she wasn’t so disappointed.

“At this point are we going to be monitoring sleepovers? Does she have a curfew?” Maatz asks. “It felt disrespectful, quite frankly, to me.”

Only about 20 percent of the nation’s universities have a female president so some women are asking whether other male presidents at Alabama State University were given contracts with the same conditions.

And who monitors the comings and goings of Boyd’s evening guests?

Is there someone hired to stake out Boyd’s residence and rat her out if someone spends the night? And what is considered “overnight?”

When would Boyd be in violation of her contract? – 1 a.m., 2 a.m. 5 a.m.,  if she entertains someone in the evening?

And what exactly do trustees mean by “cohabitate?”

Here’s the definition for co•hab•it:

“to live together as if married, usually without legal or religious sanction.”

“to live together in an intimate relationship.”

No Overnight ‘Lovers’ for Alabama State University’s First Female President  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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