They Didn’t Mention Co-ed rooming on the campus tour?!

Ajit Vakharia

College is a time where students gain their freedom. A time where students can decide what classes they want to take, what time they want to do homework, and what they want to eat for dinner, but recently it has also became a time for students to choose where they want to live and with who, whether that be someone of the same or opposite sex. As of August 2009, more than 40 campuses in American have adopted a new choice of dorming, co-ed rooms or gender neutral rooms. Simply put, these gender neutral rooms give college students the chance to dorm with members of the opposite sex. This new idea has caused quite a stir amongst students and parents. Is this new idea too revolutionary for the times we live in or is this just another step moving toward a more progressive future that has been waiting to take place? Whether or not college institutions are ready for this move, gender neutral rooms should be offered in the future because students are now also adults and are able to make their own decisions, and some students really do get along better with members of the opposite sex.


When students enter college, they are at a juncture in their lives going from adolescence to adulthood. These students are at a point where they can start making decisions on their own including who they may or may not want to live with. As suggested by Jacques Steinberg, gender neutral dorms give students a chance to be romantically involved with each other which may make them more inclined to have sex since it would be more difficult to enforce a curfew, but these students are now adults and can make decisions on whether they want to have sex and be romantically involved or just have a strictly platonic relationship. Whatever the circumstances may be, these students are now about to be adults and are able to make their own decisions. Also, some students develop better relationships with members of the opposite sex concluded by Roxanne Ranelli. She states many homosexuals get along better with members of the opposite sex then their own, and through gender neutral dorms, homosexuals get a chance to be more comfortable in their environment while promoting an idea of gender equality.


While gender neutral dorms is a completely new and revolutionary idea, many schools in the north east, including the Ivy Leagues, are giving this option during housing assignment. To not allow this option is only delaying the inevitable as college students progress for young maturing adolescents to respectable adults.