DISSENT: An Invasion of Privacy

The staff's position regarding the FDO's rooming policy springs from good intentions. It would be a great pity if the administration sanctioned the legitimacy of homophobic bigotry, and we concur with the staff's contention that much could be learned in gay-straight rooming arrangements. Indeed, we are in favor of any sort of FDO policy that would actively discourage first-years from switching rooms simply on the basis of a roommate's sexual orientation. But the board is misguided in pressing to categorically deny first-years with homosexual roommates the possibility of changing rooms.

The discomfort that some might feel living with a homosexual roommate is of a particular nature and must be distinguished from the discomfort experienced because of religious or extra-curricular dissimilarities. Many tolerant heterosexual men would not feel comfortable undressing in front of a woman--not because they hate women, and not because they think that all women are attracted to them, but simply because the possibility of that attraction is experienced as an invasion of privacy. Some might find those same sensibilities offended if they were compelled to live in close quarters with a homosexual, and the FDO should not peremptorily forbid rooming changes to those who find such a situation untenable.

The staff recognizes this line of argument, and its only response is to suggest that in some far away epoch, those mores that forbid mixed-sex rooming groups may also crumble. We would hardly applaud such a development. We cling to the out-dated belief that there are some rules of propriety that are, in fact, beneficial to society and the moral life of the individual. Those that protect basic considerations of privacy--the right to establish a sphere devoid of any calculations of sexual dynamics--are worthy of preservation.

We hope that increasingly few students take advantage of the option, but the FDO should maintain its current policy of allowing first-years to switch out of their assigned rooming groups if they so request.

--Noah D. Oppenheim '00