Single-sex dorms: A cure for binge drinking?

Will single-sex dorms help stop the over-the-top drinking and casual sex plaguing college campuses? Catholic University of America seems to think so. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, the college's president announced that the university will revert to single-sex dorms this fall. He argues that students housed in co-ed dorms binge drink twice as much, and are more likely to have multiple sex partners. Will dividing boys and girls really help solve the problem, or is Catholic University naive about college life? (See students' reactions to the news.)

Catholic University is "out of step": Co-ed dorms are hardly the problem, says Laura Sessions Stepp at CNN. "Female guzzlers" drink for the same reasons as men — "to get high, to look cool, to relieve depression" — and actually tend to drink more when they're in an all-girl crowd. Moving the boys to a different dorm will hardly encourage girls to drink less.

"Single-sex dorms won't stop drinking of 'hooking up'"

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This is a good start, but we need to do more: Co-ed dorms have their perks, says Lewis McCrary at The American Conservative. Having women around helps calm unruly young men, and creates an environment that is "more peaceful and conducive to serious study." That said, single-sex housing offers far greater potential for a "more virtuous and elevated learning environment." But simply segregating dormitories isn't enough. Only a "deep moral transformation" in "institutional culture" can truly reverse this trend.

"Should coed college dorms cause an uproar?"

Wait, this is college. Students will still party: It's not as if sex-segregated women will suddenly "hold tea parties in their dorm rooms" rather than drink and hook up, says Margaret Hartmann at Jezebel. And anyone who thinks so is seriously overestimating the "challenge of walking an extra 50 feet to the adjacent dorm."

"Catholic University reverts to single-sex dorms because ladies can't stop being slutty"