Stanford allowing students to shack up

Stanford University is proving to be one of the most progressive universities in the country. Less than two months after announcing free tuition to students whose families earn less than $100k (free room & board is thrown in if you earn under $60k), Stanford just announced its new "gender neutral" housing pilot program. In the proposed pilot, during the upcoming '08 - '09 academic school year, 5 residences (Narnia, Terra, Castaño, Mirrielees and Rains) will allow for males and females to room together. The goal is to better serve transgender students and offer more choices to those who want to live with friends of the opposite sex.

I actually think this is a pretty cool idea. It only applies to sophomores, juniors, and seniors so you don't have to worry about freshmen wilin' out. Plus, as we all know, many people were "sneaking" into Escondido Village (EV) in pairs, pretending to be sets of homosexual couples in order for two unmarried heterosexual couples to live together. Now, if a guy and a girl want to live together, they can. And co-ed draw groups will be less likely to get screwed in the draw.

Side Note:

My friends and I got completely screwed in the draw the two times I participated in it with them. When I applied for my sophomore year housing, my draw group got a draw number of 1906 (out of 2000). But it only got worse the next year when we got a 1921. We essentially wasted two preferred years. I didn't take any chances senior year, and was an RA in Lantana.

As my boy Sol mentioned, it'd be interesting for Stanford to track sexual activity during this pilot program. This gives couples free reign to live together without the hassles of sexiling roommates, so you'd think things would be crackin' more often. I also know of many situations where one roommate's significant other essentially lived in the dorm room, so there were basically 3 people cramming into a room that could barely fit two. That's gotta pretty uncomfortable for the third wheel.

But this brings about an interesting question. If given the chance, would you actually want to live with your boyfriend or girlfriend? I mean, if things go south in the middle of Winter quarter, you're pretty much screwed right? You've got nowhere to go. In my opinion, having a boyfriend/girlfriend is already distracting enough (some say it's like adding a 5-unit class), without adding all the aches and pains of living together. Even if everything is peachy keen, I really can't see too much studying happening since they are always right there.

So I'd like to hear people's thoughts. Would you or wouldn't you live with your boyfriend or girlfriend if you had the opportunity? Feel free to leave your comments as well as fill out the poll on the right-hand side of the blog.

Update: Check out the imported facebook note version of this blog entry for more comments on the issue.