This post was written by Hatchet reporter Ariel Feldman.
The Catholic University of America will begin phasing in a single-sex housing system this fall.
CUA President John Garvey penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Monday, saying freshmen will first be assigned to single-sex residence halls.
The change at Catholic will come in stages, beginning with first-year students before affecting sophomores and eventually juniors and seniors, Garvey said. The decision aims to curb “binge drinking and hooking up,” which Garvey described as “the two most serious ethical challenges college students face.”
“Students who engage in binge drinking (about two in five) are 25 times more likely to do things like miss class, fall behind in school work, engage in unplanned sexual activity, and get in trouble with the law,” Garvey wrote. “They also cause trouble for other students, who are subjected to physical and sexual assault, suffer property damage and interrupted sleep, and end up babysitting problem drinkers.”
The neighboring university’s decision comes on the heels of GW’s move to introduce a gender-neutral option in almost every residence hall, with about 150-students slated to live in mixed-sex housing. GW’s decision to allow mixed-sex dorming came after Allied in Pride and the Student Association championed the issue last year. Students must opt into the system by both checking off a preference to live in gender-neutral housing and mutually requesting specific roommates.
Rising CUA junior Bruce Hoefer said he agrees with his university’s shift toward single-sex housing and supports Garvey’s decision.
“I think most of the students will want to go to CUA for the Catholic aspect and I think that it’s to return to [a sense of] morality and a structure, and that goes hand in hand with intellectual formation,” Hoefer said.“I’m glad that he’s doing it.”
Garvey also wrote that though the transformation to single-sex housing will place limits on CUA’s admissions decisions – constraining the school to admit similar gender ratios year-to-year – “our students will be better off.”
