This week, students will participate in the annual headache known as Room Draw. With almost every student at the College living on-campus, the results of Room Draw dramatically impact the life of every student. Unfortunately, students' room-group options are limited by an out-of-date policy which requires doubles and triples to be inhabited by students of the same gender. There are many reasons why students might be inclined to live with members of the opposite sex, and the College should make co-ed housing an option.

We do not believe that a large portion of students would choose to live in mixed-gender doubles and triples, but there is no reason for such housing not to be an option for all upperclassmen. Undoubtedly, first-year rooms should remain single-sex-a policy change would only affect those with the ability to choose roommates.

There are a variety of reasons why students might prefer a roommate of the opposite sex, the most obvious of which deal with LGBTQ concerns. For example, gay and lesbian students might feel more comfortable living with members of the other gender much like heterosexual students tend to prefer roommates of the same gender. And there are some students who, regardless of sexuality and gender interests, might wish to live with a friend that happens to be of a different gender. The bottom line is that choosing a roommate is a difficult and very personal process that should not be dictated by a tradition of gender segregation.

Of course, the current housing policy exists for a reason. Our society expects gender segregation in intimate settings. For example, many people in the College community are at first uncomfortable with the co-ed bathrooms in dorms. Fortunately, the College has always been accommodating of all students' preferences, and this tendency should continue. Just as every dorm's bathroom only becomes co-ed if the students using it approve, living arrangements should only be co-ed if students wish them to be so. Why not give students the choice?

While many are uncomfortable with the idea of living in a mixed-gender room, matters beyond personal preference are cited by opponents of a co-ed roommate option-especially an expected increase in cases of sexual violence. However, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania-two schools which recently adopted mixed-gender housing policies-have found that incidents of sexual assault are not linked with mixed-gender roommates. In fact, according to the Harvard Crimson, the University's Office for Sexual Assault Prevention researched housing patterns at American colleges and universities and found that there is "no relationship between the type of housing an institution allows and the rate of occurrence of sexual violence."

New dorms and online Room Draw tickers have improved the housing system, but continuing to restrict the Room Draw process to same-gender groups is an unnecessary vestige of the past. We hope that the Residential Life Department will explore a policy change for Room Draw 2007.