Women-friendly campuses

emeraldkity4
Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:45:13 +0000

My point being, colleges don’t assign men and women as roommates, yet apparently don’t take sexual orientation into account. Would it be better if they did?

no they don’t assign men and women as roommates- but I beleive after freshman year, you can pick your own roommate.

I don’t think assigning roommates of the opposite sex freshman year, would be appropriate, students already have a tremendous amount of things to get used to, and since most high schools, segregate by sex for overnights and the like, that would be something that wouldn’t really have a great reason behind it.

After freshman year, you can request roommates, and while I am not sure about all of the dorms, my D had a male roommate when she lived in the college apts.

Some of the questions that I think are reasonalble
stay up late- get up early
smoking-non smoking
noisy- prefer quiet
messy- not as

What someones sexual orientation is- what race they are- what their economic background is- religion-I dont think should be asked- I think it should be assumed that you are going to college to learn, and part of learning is getting along with others.

I think for someone who is allergic to smoke, shouldn’t be given a roommate who smokes 2 packs a day, but even Texans & Californians can learn to live together- after all they both come from pretty big states! ;)

If you are a good roommate, difference of sexual orientation, race, religon, politcal views doesn’t have to be a problem. If conflicts come up, that is what the Ra & HAs are for. If it is really something that you can’t live with, you often can get some sort of room change. I had heard of room changes, but mainly it was for positve reasons, someone wanted to be on same floor as boyfriend , or wanted to move to one of the theme dorms after they got involved in some of their events.

D had a single room for three years ( she didn’t request it- but she does have ADD & it was an immense help to her, to be able to shut the door)

But the dorms were coed- as were the bathrooms. ( although that is up to students vote & there usually is a theme dorm that is designated “womens”)
At first I was a little surprised, but really it was a non issue.
Respecting others boundarries, isn’t tied to sexual orientation.
Her sister was 11 when she started freshman year, and I was comfortable enough with the level of respect and decorum of her dorm mates to allow her sister to stay overnight, at least a couple times every year.

Now her college as you know , is very small. A dorm of 26, even if full of 19 & 20 year olds, is going to have a different atmosphere than a dorm full of 200 19 & 20 year olds.

I doubt I would have had her sister stay with her, if she had been going to a much larger campus, say Indiana Bloomington. But Reed is in a little bubble- which served D pretty well.