<p>Whadya think?</p>
<p>Texas</a> State: First in state to allow coed dorm rooms?</p>
<p>Save the rooming with opposite sex for Jr or Sr year when the kids move into apts.</p>
<p>A libertarian would say, "Have at it". A practical person would say, "That's going to be one hell-of-a rooming contract once the lawyers get done with it".</p>
<p>Doesn't bother me at all. </p>
<p>Way back in the '80s my dorm roomate moved out mid-semester to live with her boyfriend. This allowed my boyfriend (now H) to move in with me. His roommate then had a vacancy, and so on... Coed rooms have been around for years. It's just now they're becoming "official."</p>
<p>Could even save a family a few hundred dollars in dorm furnishings if brothers and sisters were allowed to share a room. (one fridge not two, one TV, one microwave)</p>
<p>Can you imagine rooming with your brother? Ewww.</p>
<p>I don't mean share a BED! Just share a room. It happens all the time on vacation. Heck, there was a time when brothers and sisters grew up sharing a room at home. A little icky...but very practical. Dorms could be the same way. That's all.</p>
<p>My kids would never want to share a dorm room....I'd probably have a hard time convincing daughter to even share a 2 bedroom condo with her brother.</p>
<p>Hmmm....I thinkin' that the Texas legislature is not going to be very conerned about the needs of the transgendered college students.</p>
<p>Why is it icky to share a room with a sibling? When I was growing up, summers were spent with grandma and all the cousins (both sexes) shared the spare bedroom.</p>
<p>Oh, and I moved into my boyfriend's single room in my second year of college. I despised my roommate.</p>
<p>^^^ LOL, I know! But vacation is not four years of college. My boys have shared a wall for 13 years now, and I doubt they have visions of going off to college together and rooming side by side.</p>
<p>I say that, but, truthfully, they are really good pals. Still, the thought of all that college experimentation going on under each other's noses creeps me out. I want a zone of privacy on their behalf.</p>
<p>missypie, the Lege will find a way to stop this one!</p>
<p>It's weird for me, as a student, to think that anyone wouldn't understand the practicality of this. I have friends who signed up for rooms with same-sex roommates, then switched without notifying Res Life because they're uncomfortable living with the same sex because of their sexuality. Besides, it's not like they're randomly pairing freshmen with opposite-sex roommates -- it's a decision you make on your own after your first year.</p>
<p>Brothers and sisters sharing a room isn't icky to me. But, I concede it could be icky to the kids.</p>
<p>I think this makes a lot of sense for the reasons it was originally instituted at some schools, i.e., for the situations where a person's sexuality could make same sex rooms uncomfortable. I don't know that I would be thrilled with my son wanting to arrange to officially room with a girlfriend in a dorm room, as who knows when they might break up or whatever. But I don't think that is typically the arrangement that happens in schools that have these policies, or at least what was intended, although that is just based on what was discussed with us on the Vassar tour.</p>
<p>Yale had some co-ed suites for upperclassmen 30 years ago. Not boyfriend-girlfriend(usually), just 6-7 friends of different genders, each with his or her separate bedroom. No big deal, really, then or now.</p>
<p>A lot of this may be driven by transgendered students, who can be hard to categorize. But co-ed living is pretty normal in the world, and doesn't generally result in horribly complicated sex. (I would guess that there are fairly strict informal taboos on roomcest. The line is probably crossed sometimes, but probably less often than one might think.)</p>
<p>There would be a lot fewer problems if colleges had more single rooms.</p>
<p>The problem, as I see it, is that the gay, lesbian, or transgendered students who select this option have to more-or-less announce their sexuality to the world by doing it. Some people prefer more privacy. </p>
<p>I see no problem with co-ed suites or co-ed off-campus apartments as long as people have their own bedrooms. (Full disclosure: My daughter, who is a college sophomore, will be sharing an off-campus apartment next year with another girl and a guy. This does not bother me at all.)</p>
<p>"6-7 friends of different genders, each with his or her separate bedroom. No big deal, really, then or now."</p>
<p>Harvard has also allowed this kind of arrangement, where the architecture permits it, for decades.</p>
<p>'I would guess that there are fairly strict informal taboos on roomcest. The line is probably crossed sometimes, but probably less often than one might think."</p>
<p>Among straight people, there are strict taboos. But I've seen a number of gay students cross that line. Without much drama ensuing, in my limited experience.</p>
<p>CMU started gender neutral apartment housing two years or so ago. Generally it's a two bedroom apartment with three or four people living there. CMU doesn't care if you mix genders in the bedrooms or not, as they say its your own business. Haven't heard a whole lot of hubbub about it, so I imagine it's working out alright.</p>
<p>I've known a lot of people who shared apartments where there were males and females, each of whom had their own bedroom. That really doesn't seem like a big deal. There's a difference between that and sharing a room.</p>
<p>At Swarthmore we have some gender-neutral housing (people may choose roommates of a different gender), which is quite useful for gay and transgendered students, as well as people who just have close friends of the opposite gender, with whom they'd like to live. It's really discouraged for couples to live on the same hall, let alone in the same room (though it doesn't stop some people from doing it, officially or unofficially). </p>
<p>I think it's a good idea. It's not forced on anyone, but the option is there for those who want it (there's also an option to live in single-sex halls, or halls where gender-neutral housing isn't allowed). Everybody gets to be comfortable with their living arrangements, everybody's happy.</p>
<p>Brown offered coed rooms (doubles) this year and I believe very few students took that option (maybe less than 10 rooms?). Brown has lots of options, singles, doubles, and suites. My son is in a coed suite (5 singles) this year and no problems so far.</p>
<p>My daughter lived in a mixed dorm (guy room, then a girl room). Sophomore year, she moved into an on campus townhouse with all girls, but the rooms could be filled any way they want. In fact, she filled one vacany with a male exchange student last year. No big deal. </p>
<p>But it's generally recommended NOT to share with a boyfriend/girlfriend since breakups can cause problems.</p>
<p>Caltech has had all coed dorms for quite some time ( I think since shortly after women were first allowed here in the 60s ). It's never caused any problems that I know of. Typically guys and girls don't share rooms, but it's not unheard of that they do.</p>