If a coed has a boy friend on campus who ends up practically living in her room, her roommate is forced into the awkward situation of having a second roommate of the opposite sex.
She ends up giving up her privacy and sometimes may be forced to be a witness to the couple’s carrying-ons.
So by allowing couples to room together, Columbia is acknowledging a reality and protecting single roommates from having to share their rooms with couples. From a purely practical point of view, this policy change makes sense.
On the other hand, college is a time for young people to experiment and discover themselves. Offering couples their own love nests is going to handicap this process.
It’s going to put pressure on students to pay more attention to their love lives than their studies. As it is, there is always some sexual tension on campus, but if some students are living together, all those students who do not have steady partners are going to feel bad.
And many of these couples who are really not ready to be with each other 24/7 will end up in one of these rooms for all the wrong reasons.
I would like to offer a better solution that acknowledges college students’ need to have the privacy to have sex but also doesn’t change the entire atmosphere of the college campus:
Set aside some rooms with locked doors where students can go to have a couple of hours of privacy.
If two students are so in love that they need to spend every minute with each other, let them move off campus. But such private rooms will ease the pressure of roommates without partners without making such a drastic change to the collegial atmosphere of campus life.
Renowned sex therapist Dr. Ruth gives advice at drruth.com.