It is a strange transition – leaving the comfort of home for the college dorms, a place of freedom where weekday parties are common and, as liberal studies freshman Mark Grisafe said, “you just walk out of the shower in a towel and there will be girls, right there.”
Co-ed living is an idea students contemplate after leaving the college dorms for a variety of reasons. Although it is usually to sublease a space, sometimes students are just ready to try something different.
Biology senior Megan Branson and her two female roommates lived with two male roommates last year. One was randomly placed in an open room, while their other male roommate, who lived with them in the winter and spring, studied abroad.
“I’d live with a guy again,” she said. “It wasn’t really different than living with girls.”
Branson said, contrary to public assumption, her male roommates didn’t smell bad and were respectful of the female roommates’ space, though she described the bathroom situation as “kind of interesting” given that the women were cleaner. “It was nice having someone to kill bugs and spiders and stuff,” she said.
There are costs and benefits to co-ed living. While Branson said living with men was ultimately drama-free, she usually found herself watching sports on TV, and the food she shared with her roommates always seemed to disappear much faster than if she was living with women. But the men barbecued, which she considered a plus.
Grisafe, who currently lives in Trinity Hall, said he would try living with women although he said he understands how some people may find the idea scary.
“It would be a lot cleaner and things would probably take longer, as far as getting ready and stuff,” he said. “But they would definitely be more ideal to live with than a bunch of guys who are just going to party all the time.”
Mustang Village insists that all students’ parents sign a guarantee form before move-in dates if co-ed living is requested.
Staff members said just a handful of students live in co-ed quarters at the facility and of those, most are married couples, in which the students are older and in graduate programs.
Housing officials do not recommend co-ed living situations and are often caught in the middle when students decide to move out as a result.
“If people are going to school and they’re trying to study, it just adds another element of potential negativity,” he said, adding that college students in relationships are not usually ready to live with each other.
“Girls should live with girls, and boys should live with boys,” he said.
Not all co-ed living situations are subject to romance, though.
David Boortz, an aerospace engineering graduate student, has lived with females on several occasions. During his sophomore year at UC Santa Barbara, he shared one small room with two friends of his, one male and one female, a situation he described as “a little tense.”
After living with a 55-year-old woman when he first moved to San Luis Obispo, Boortz lived with a group of five females while their roommate studied abroad. He said he found both situations quite enjoyable.
“I got to know those girls pretty well in a short period of time on a level that I would say doesn’t happen right away with guys,” he said.
In terms of the costs of living with men, he shared similar sentiments to Grisafe. He lived in a house with seven other men in Santa Barbara where music always blared and the space felt more crowded than when he lived with women.
When he came to San Luis Obispo after graduating he said, “I didn’t want to live with college guys . girls are more mature, the household vibe was a little more adult, the girls studied.”
Civil engineering senior Kay Rathe has lived with only women since leaving the dorms. Next year, she plans on switching things up and throwing a man or two into her living arrangements.
“Because I’ve lived with girls so long, I would like to try (living with men) out,” she said. “I’m an engineer, so I’d say a majority of my friends are guys. … Because I’m used to good friendships with guys, I think it would be a beneficial thing to try living with them.”