Maybe I've become a prude now that I'm in my 40s, but I find this trend disturbing for a number of reasons.

Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia share a dorm room at ConnecticutÂ’s Wesleyan University. But they say thereÂ’s no funny business going on. Really. They mean it.

They have set up their beds side-by-side like Lucy and Ricky in “I Love Lucy,” and avert their eyes when one of them is changing clothes.

“People are shocked to hear that it’s happening and even that it’s possible,” said Youngdahl, a 20-year-old sophomore. But “once you actually live in it, it doesn’t actually turn into a big deal.”

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At least two dozen schools, including Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin College, Clark University and the California Institute of Technology, allow some or all students to share a room with anyone they choose — including someone of the opposite sex. This spring, as students sign up for next year’s room, more schools are following suit, including Stanford University.

What do I find troubling here? A couple of things.

1) The potential for sexual assault/harassment created by this situation. To what degree will a school be liable?

2) The further erosion of standards. There was a time when co-ed floors were a limited experiment for those who chose them. Now they are mandatory at some universities -- to the point that students with religious scruples against what they view as the immodest living arrangements are told to either violate their moral beliefs or apply at another university. Will the next step be the assignment of students to co-ed rooms without regard for preference or religious/moral standards that reject the practice?

3) Right now, the bulk of those in co-ed rooms are doing so for non-sexual reasons. Will that change? And if schools wish to prevent that, will it be necessary for them to engage in intrusive snooping into the sex lives of students -- and will that same standard be applied to gay/lesbian students in relationship with roommates?

Do I have a problem with co-ed couples getting an apartment off campus? In all honesty, I don't. But to create such situations on campus -- especially in situations where students are mandated to live in dormitories as a condition of attendance at the school -- strikes me as a step too far. Men and women are different and are not interchangeable. Acting as if they are by breaking down all barriers between them seems to be a particularly bad idea.

Posted by: Greg at 02:48 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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