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Catholic University’s Single-Sex Dorm Reform

Catholic University’s Single-Sex Dorm Reform
6/24/2011
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Anna Meskishvili

Last week, Catholic University president John Garvey announced that beginning with this upcoming academic year, all dormitories would be single-sex. The university based this decision on reported studies that students living in co-ed environments are more likely to engage in binge drinking as well as hooking up.

Garvey emphasizes that within co-ed environments, gender roles get blurred and women try to “outdrink” men, which can only lead to harmful situations. From reckless drinking comes reckless behavior such as unprotected sex, which is more easily accessible in a co-ed dorm. If his changes are instituted, Garvey claims this is all less likely to occur.

This change in housing is not passing without some strong opposition. John F. Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University, claims that this may even be illegal because it violates the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on sex, race, religion and other factors.

Through my own experience living in single-sex and co-ed dorms, I can tell you that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. No matter what environment you place 300 18-year-olds in, they will be as reckless as they choose to be. In fact, as stated in a CNN article about the matter, many women do their heaviest drinking while with other women and boys tend to “bro-out” with their guy friends and binge drink; therefore, separating the two groups will likely not change their initiative to engage in alcohol consumption.

From my experience living in an all-girls dorm, all the female interaction leads to cliques, cattiness and bullying; this is much less likely to occur when there are boys present to dilute the female egos. Being in single-sex dorms makes it harder to branch out and ultimately does not benefit the students living there. What do you think? Do you think that eliminating common ground between boys and girls in dorms will eliminate the problems Garvey cites, too?

Anna Meskishvili is a rising senior at Boston University pursuing a degree in public relations at the College of Communication and hopes to someday work in healthcare administration communication. She is part of Kappa Delta at BU and has loved every second of it. She is also involved in Public Relations Student Society of America and Ed on Campus. Anna was born in the Republic of Georgia and considers herself a citizen of the world because she’s lived in Russia, England, France, Brooklyn and Connecticut. She loves to travel, run and learn.

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