College Times

Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: News

Media Credit: photos.com

It seems like common courtesy, but not all college roommates get the message.

"Just have quieter sex," says Danny Mansoor, a bioengineering freshman at Arizona State University.

But in handling the age-old problem of loud, non-private dorm room sex, one university has chosen a different route.

When administrators at Tufts University outside of Boston recently got complaints about non-private, often disruptive sex within its dormitories, the school issued a policy for those students living in campus housing: no sex is allowed when roommates are present and no sex should interfere with a roommate's privacy, studying or sleeping, according to the "Paper Trail" blog in US News and World Report. There is no mention of what will happen to students if the policy is not followed, however.

Locally, while no statistics are available about the number of complaints ASU's University Housing department receives with regard to loud and non-private sexual activity in the dorms, the school openly encourages communication between roommates whenever problems arise, especially given that enrollment at ASU was at its all-time high at nearly 70,000 this fall semester.

Eliza Robinson, the media relations coordinator with University Housing on the Tempe campus, says relationships between roommates will always require personal adjustments in learning to live with another person in a limited space.

However, she says "[s]ituations in which conflict resolution attempts have been unsuccessful may require participation in mediation."

She also says if the problem persists and the situation is bad enough, relocation might be the only option left.

Elora Diaz, a student community advisor at Hassayampa Academic Village, one of the largest and busiest residence halls on campus, says with a job similar to that of a residential advisor, she's never had a complaint pertaining to loud, non-private sex inside a dorm room.

"I think it's different for each floor," she says. "But I believe, in general, students know how to behave. They know it's common sense to not do that when their roommate's in the room."

Diaz, a justice studies major at ASU, also says that if it becomes a problem, the students involved would come to her and talk about it. If the problem still persists, they would go to her supervisor, and they might need to switch to another room.

"There'd be no penalization for [non-private, loud sex] because there's no rule in place," she says. "I don't think it should be the place of the university to step in. It should be the responsibility of the roommates to come to some sort of agreement about activity inside the dorm room at the beginning of the semester."

Vanessa Pitterka, also an ASU bioengineering freshman and a resident at Palo Verde Main, thinks roommates should just hash out issues like loud, non-private sex, not the university.

"If my roommate is having sex when I'm in the room, I'm not going to waste time to complain to the RA. I'm going to leave. Who wants to sit there and listen to their roommate have sex?" Pitterka says. "Ultimately, it should be up to the roommates to make rules that can be easily followed so these issues don't come up during the semester."

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