Tufts’ new dorm sex rule
Is the Boston-area college going too far with its ban on having sex in view of a roommate?
Tufts University is banning 'any sex act' in its dorm rooms where a roomate is present.
(Corbis/Estelle Klawitter)
So much for the old “neckties and socks” on the doorknob to warn off roommates, said Jacques Steinberg in The New York Times. Responding to “a significant number of complaints” from dorm residents last year, Tufts University is banning students from performing “any sex act” in a dorm room when a roommate is present (Watch CNN news report).
It also banned “what the students call ‘sexile,’” said Wendy Atterberry in The Frisky, or exiling your roommate when “you want to get busy”—something "I wish my alma mater" had done. Still, infringements on your privacy, study time, and sleep are “sort of a rite of passage in college,” and “just how they plan to enforce these rules is anyone’s guess.”
The new sex rules have "little to do with actual enforcement,” said Tufts psychologist Sam Sommers in Psychology Today, “and everything to do with making clear what should have been self-evident to obliviously inconsiderate roommates.” Questions remain—like is this really the university’s business, and is sex with a roommate "now against the rules as well?”—but since “public decency” is clearly lacking among today’s students, “good for us, I say.”
Yes, Tufts is “only upholding common courtesy,” said The Boston Globe in an editorial. “College may be a time for experimentation”—and some students will “take umbrage” at the administration's acting “in loco parentis”—but “even the most open-minded” student might welcome such “unambiguous guidelines” if they have a thoughtless roommate.
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9 Comments
Posted by kam, Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 5:06 pm Tufts needs to be very, very careful. The PC police and the ACLU will come down on the university like a ton of bricks. Everyone knows that no matter how inappropriate, immoral, indecent, andor disgusting the behavior, the behavior is protected in our PC culture. Freedom of action takes precedence over freedom of speech. Not in the Constitution, but in the minds of sick, weak, enabling citizens who want to maintain their personal dysfunctions. Common courtesy like common sense is dead.
Posted by mjg, Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 5:39 pm My father had a roommate when he first moved to NYC. They agreed on several things, including his roommate's right to private time in the apartment with no interruptions between 5 pm to 7 pm every day, including weekends. My father, no slouch with the ladies himself, watched while every single day his roommate brought a different lady into the apartment promptly at 5 pm. No pros, mind you, only girl next door types. This went on for about one whole year. My father's roommate was the true pickup King of New York in 1940.
Posted by swikabi, Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 7:25 pm mjg, congrats to your father for an active sex life and for working it out with his college roommate. My son is a college student and his roommate and girlfriend have no compunction about having sex in the room while he is there... even though he has asked his roommate to be more considerate. Protect the rights of students who want to have sex in their rooms ....how about the infringement on my son's liberties? Go Tufts !!!
Posted by Mehitabel, Thursday, October 1, 2009, 1:08 am Your roomie won't get a room? You get a bucket. It's called boundaries. Get used to both establishing and following them.
Posted by Joshua Stern, Thursday, October 1, 2009, 10:56 am If im trying to scrape something, my roomie best believe he's outta there. Common courtesy, the G code, brothers band, all that.
Posted by Sam, Thursday, October 1, 2009, 4:20 pm If your room mate has no common decency, just set up a webcam if they continue nevertheless, you can at least profit or donate to your favorite charity
Posted by Sam, Thursday, October 1, 2009, 4:20 pm If your room mate has no common decency, just set up a webcam if they continue nevertheless, you can at least profit or donate to your favorite charity
Posted by Lauren, Thursday, October 1, 2009, 5:45 pm I have never been more thankful for my single room.
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