Office of Human Rights OKs Single-Sex Dorms at Catholic University of America

This past summer, John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., announced that all incoming first-year students would be housed in single-sex residence halls. In the fall of 2012, all first- and second-year students will be in single-sex dormitories. Eventually, all residence halls on campus will be single-sex dorms.

President Garvey cited research that shows that students in co-ed dorms are more than twice as likely as students in single-sex residence halls to engage in binge drinking. In addition, the research found that students in co-ed dorms are more than twice as likely as their counterparts who lived in single-sex facilities to have had three or more sexual partners in the previous 12 months.

Dr. Garvey maintained that “student housing has become a hotbed of reckless drinking and hooking up.” He believes that this culture is leading to poorer academic performance and higher rates of depression, particularly among women students.

A professor at the university filed a complaint with the Office of Human Rights of the District of Columbia. He maintained that the policy was discriminatory. But the commission has now dismissed the complaint, saying that single-sex dorms are not discriminatory because women and men are not treated differently.