Welcome to college. It’s move in day at the dorm and you and your parents are eager to move in the tubs of your belongings as soon as possible. It’s hot, and sweaty freshmen are nervously moving about. You catch curious glimpses as you make it down the hallway, eyeing every person that walks by you. You finally get to your room and slowly open the door in anticipation. There stands someone from the opposite sex with his or her parents. Meet your new roommate.

This fall, Rutgers University made co-ed rooming a reality. New rules had been set to let students choose their roommates regardless of their gender. This was because of the recent incident involving a gay student who committed suicide as a result of being harassed and videotaped by his straight roommate while he was engaging in acts with another man. Rutgers hopes that this new rule will allow for more comfortable living situations for gay, lesbian and bisexual students, even though they will not be the only ones who participate in this change.

Parents will not have the right to veto the decision to room with someone from the opposite sex, and will worry that this will only encourage sexual relations between students, due to the convenience factor.

Sophomores at the UNCW, Courtney Merchant and Haley Paskalides think that co-ed living is one of the best decisions they have ever made. Even though they did not have the option to room with boys their freshman year on campus, they wished the school had allowed them to do so. “I definitely feel a lot safer than if I was living with all girls, and if I need something fixed around the house, one of the boys can or will usually do it, or at least they always have tools I need to borrow,” said Merchant.

“Greg (our first roommate) was really handy and knew how to fix everything which was nice, and after our fence was broken from Court’s party, the boys fixed it which I would have no idea how to do,” said Paskalides.

“I got along alright with my female roommate, but living with a boy would have been a lot easier,” Merchant said.

“Girls won’t tell you when there’s something wrong. Boys will just say it and it will be over with. Girls just let it build up,” Paskalides said.

Paskalides and Merchant have lived with two male roommates, both of which are openly gay.

“There is still a stigma attached to being a lesbian or gay which I think is wrong but its still there. They should obviously have the choice though if they feel more comfortable,” said Merchant. She explained how she helped her current roommate write a letter to housing this year requesting that he be released from his on-campus housing contract since he did not feel comfortable living with his straight roommate and wished to live off campus with the girls.

Housing respected his request, releasing him from his contract. This issue would be able to be solved a different way if UNCW decided to allow students to live with the opposite sex.

“Even if students brought forth in significant numbers such a request, we would have to take a look at the rationale and I think the UNC system is conservative in the way that it looks at how students reside in the 16 schools. There is a law and it’s called cohabitation. This law says that individuals of opposite genders cannot reside together unless they are legally married.” He continued, “our university and the other UNC schools use prevailing state law in determining what our policies are. I would guess that we would probably be on the verge of violating state law if that happened,” said Brad Reid, director of housing and residence life at UNCW.

“Co-ed living is very popular with students. But it will be a long time before you would see UNCW buying into letting men and women live in the same apartment, suite or dorm,” said Reid.

Parents would be another issue. Reid predicts that there would be an outcry if the university were to condone co-ed living. “They already have their sons or daughters convincing them to let them live in co-ed buildings with the rules and regulations we have. The geographic area of the country that we live in is still part of the Bible belt. From an ethical standpoint, a lot of community members would be upset since we are conservative here in the Southeast,” Reid said.

In response to what Rutgers is planning this fall, Reid said, “We are not going to be pressured by what Rutgers does, that’s their decision. I’m surprised they had their legal folks approve this although there aren’t that many sates that have a cohabitation law like we have.”

If by chance this issue ever does come up, Reid would not be the only one needed to approve it. Vice Chancellor Pat Leonard would be next, followed by the Chancellor and his cabinet. If they agreed with it, it would then go to the Board of Trustees and possibly to the Board of Governors. In other words, don’t make any plans to live with your friend from the opposite sex on campus for a while.