Boys and Girls Together

Of all the protests at Columbia University this spring, the gentlest was the three-day "sleep-in" at two men's dormitories staged by more than 100 girls from Barnard College. The girls asked that the two adjacent schools extend the concept of coeducation to include sexually integrated dormitories. Like the gentlemen they sometimes are, Columbia males had gallantly vacated a number of rooms to make the sleep-in not only possible but, so to speak, proper as well. Since an overwhelming majority of students at Barnard and Columbia are on record as in favor of the idea, the schools are now planning to experiment with at least one coeducational dormitory unit next fall.

Shocking? Not really. Coed dorms are still something of a novelty in the East, but on scores of campuses elsewhere in the U.S., young men and women have been sharing dormitories for several years. "It is a fair assumption that coed living really is the trend of the future," says John Houseley, director of Pomona College's Oldenborg Hall, a mixed residence that was started three years ago. At U.C.L.A. the future has already arrived: there is only one single-sex dormitory left--and even it will soon be converted into a coed dorm for graduate students.

Incest Taboo. Naturally, there are restraints on the amount of mixing allowed. The sexes are usually segregated in separate wings or on separate floors with common lounges in between. Most schools allow at least a measure of visiting in rooms, but the parietal rules vary widely. In the only coed dorm at the University of Texas, for example, men are allowed to entertain women in their rooms only on weekends. An alarm system is set on the staircases leading to the women's floors; it has been silent all year. Among the most liberal is Stanford, where men and women in one coed dorm live in adjacent rooms (but use different bathrooms) and visiting hours exist in theory only.

Such mixing of the sexes is evidence that colleges are more than willing to stop playing the role of puritanical parental surrogates. At Antioch College in Ohio, where all but three dorms are coed, Associate Dean Jean Janis explains why: "The more responsibility you give students, the more they are able to assume." The trend disturbs some parents, especially those with daughters. Yet most school officials maintain that coeducational living does not lead to increased sexual activity. According to Stanford Psychologist Joseph Katz, an incest taboo develops in coed dorms as a result of a brother-sister relationship between the residents.

Be that as it may, most students who live in such dorms talk more about the social advantages of coed living than about sexual liberty. "The difference is in the atmosphere," says Doretha Freas-ier, a sophomore at the University of Chicago who lives in coed Woodward Court. "The mere fact that you can talk to a guy any time you want to means you're going to be better adjusted socially." Adds Stanford Senior Pat McMahon: "I think it encourages a more holistic relationship. It is very important that men and women see each other as more than bodies."

The mixed residential plan seems to eliminate more distractions than it causes. "My associates tell me that a good deal of serious studying gets done," says Fred McElhenie, assistant dean of students at the University of Kansas.

One of his students, Sophomore Keith Jorgensen, suggests a reason: "There is less noise with girls around since you don't want to make yourself look like a fool in front of females."

Final Freedom. Behavior benefits all around. "People generally are on their mettle a little more," says Dick Palmer, manager of Berkeley's co-op housing, which includes two coed dorms. "The men are a little more gentlemanly and the women a little more womanly." Asks Stanford Junior Craig Wilson: "When was the last time you heard of a panty raid in a coed dorm?"

At many campuses where coed living is accepted, students are pressing for one final freedom: the right to visit rooms with no restrictions. Peter Wilson, 25, a U.C.L.A. residence adviser at coed Earle Hedrick Hall, insists that they want open visitation rights, "not because they want to see girls 24 hours a day but because they want to be trusted to use their own judgment." But at San Diego State College, the men and women who share Zura Hall voted against any visiting in rooms. "It was not as much a question of morality as it was one of inconvenience," says John Yarborough, the college's director of housing. "If Willie likes to sleep late on Sundays, he doesn't like the idea of having to get up and dress to be presentable when his roommate's girl drops by." Aw, come on, Willie.

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