News-Record.com

You meant co-ed dorms, right?

That was the reaction when I shared with my A&T editorial writing students Guilford College's consideration of a new policy that would allow co-ed roommates under an arrangement called "gender-blind" housing.

Of course, we had the same arrangement long ago and far away when I was an undergraduate at Carolina. Heck, some couples even set up households in Hinton James dorm, where I lived for three years. Only it was always done on the down-low, winked and nodded at unless somebody complained.

And it was against school policy.

James was a co-ed dormitory by wings in those days. (At least one North Campus dorm, Winston, had room-by-room co-ed halls.

At 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends, the doors that offered access to those areas were locked. If you wanted to get to the women's -- or the men's side -- side after curfew, you were out of luck. Or in luck. Dependng on your point of view.

Sometimes poor souls were so desperate to get from one side to the other that they would go to extraordinary lengths, scaling from one balcony to the another.

James is a 10-story dorm.

Guilford has always been, well, a little avant-garde in its outlook.
But official sanctioning of gender-blind rooms is, well, radical.

After all, co-habitation is still against the law in North Carolina.
North Carolina is one of seven states that have laws prohibiting cohabitation of unmarried couples. Guess it depends on how you define couple?

As for me, I wouldn't like codification of such a rule if I were a Guilford parent. Shackin' up is shackin' up.

If I were a student ...?????