Sunday, May 04, 2008

Coed dorm rooms

The AP reports on a new trend in college living situations: coed dorm rooms.

Unbelievable.

Now I'm a firm believer that those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford to "go away to college" have a great opportunity. For me, it was a chance to "grow up," while still being far from "living on my own."

If I slept late, I was responsible for it. I learned to wash my own clothes. Without any prodding, I had to schedule time to study and work. But working in my favor was the fact that I was surrounded by my friends who had the same concerns. On top of all that, I was only 17 when I left for college (Bryant College, now Bryant University, in Rhode Island... also my mom's alma mater, class of '59).

It seems to me that there's plenty of "growing up" to do for college kids already. And now we've got coed dorm rooms? If this is progress, it's entirely unnecessary progress.

Tim White

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Some gay students who feel more comfortable rooming with someone of the opposite sex are also taking advantage of the option."

Tim, doesn't (at least) this part make a whole lot of sense?

Anonymous said...

Oh boy does this get complicated!

I see your point, but do you board a homosexual male with a heterosexual female?

Perhaps the biggest issue is maturity.

You're can drive at 16, but you can't run for Congress until you're 25. I'm only 35, but I'm guessing that the maturing during those years is much greater than in other years.

And it seems to me that it's probably just better to avoid changing these rules for that age group.

Grad students wouldn't make much of a difference to me... presumably they're older (mid 20s at least) and more mature. But I was 17 when I went to college in Rhode Island. And I was a kid who still needed some direction from authority figures (even though I'd never have admitted it then).