<p>What is your opinion on coed dorms? Not the hallways or whatever but the room.</p>
<p>Just to clarify–</p>
<p>No college will place a student in a “co-ed” environment if they do not want to be placed there. Colleges realize that the vast majority of people who consider themselves females want to be placed with other females and the vast majority of people who consider themselves males want to be placed with other males.</p>
<p>However, there is a population of students who either a) don’t identify as either male or female, or are somehow straddled between the two and don’t feel comfortable labeling themselves, or b) feel that male/female/trans/whateverness is unimportant in the selection of a roommate. It’s for this reason that what you’re calling “co-ed” housing is often referred to as “gender neutral housing.”</p>
<p>To me, the housing option is as unradical as can be. It’s there for people who want it and it’s not a problem for people who would be uncomfortable with it. It’s similar to barbequeing with veggie burgers… veggie burgers exist so that vegetarians can enjoy barbeque, but the existence of veggie burgers doesn’t stop the majority meat-eaters.</p>
<p>The only danger is that someone who thinks they would be comfortable in a gender neutral room finds out that they actually aren’t. That’s a problem which I think is solvable rather easily by making sure students think seriously about what they are comfortable with beforehand and having a room change process if the student feels they no longer want to be in that environment. That’s really not that different a consideration than it would be for any other kind of specialized housing (themed, foreign language only, etc.). If the school goes about things intelligently, gender neutral housing is perfectly fine by me.</p>