71% Oppose Co-ed Roommates on College Campuses

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, is making headlines with the recent announcement that it will provide “gender-neutral” housing for students starting in the fall. In designated dormitories, male and female students can choose to live together as roommates on floors with co-ed rooms and bathrooms.

But a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 71% of American Adults think men and women should not be allowed to live in the same dorm room while in college. One-in-four (24%) think the co-ed living arrangement is fine. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Forty-five percent (45%) of adults under 30 say men and women should be allowed to live in the same dorm room, significantly higher support than is found among their elders. Adults without children at home are twice as likely as adults with children to approve of co-ed dorm rooms, but majorities of both still oppose the idea.

But a large majority of all adults (67%) agree that parental approval should be required if students under the age of 21 want to live in a dorm room with a member of the opposite sex. Twenty-five percent (25%) disagree and think no parental permission should be necessary.

Americans are more accepting of co-ed dormitories, where men and women live together on the same floor or within the same building. Forty-four percent (44%) say men and women should be allowed to live in the same dorm, while 46% disagree. Again, however, younger adults are more accepting of co-ed dormitories than those who are older.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on March 3-4, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.