“The purpose of the rule is to empower the student who is not having sex by giving them veto power over whether their roommate can have sex in the room,” said Austin Bening, a freshman at Tufts.
These measures were enacted to ensure that students would not be deprived of necessary sleep or study time. The initial response was one of disbelief, tinged with confusion, along with just a dash of “Seriously?”
Bening noted that the rule’s effectiveness is questionable at best.
“That’s the one problem with the rule,” Bening said. “The victimized, sexiled student has to turn their roommate in. And no one wants to be the dick who turns someone in.”
Could this rule spread to Wesleyan? Short answer: no.
“Wesleyan does not have a similar policy, and there has not been any discussion about implementing one,” said Frances Koerting, Director of Residential Life at Wesleyan.
The head of residential life at Tufts declined to comment on what led the university to adopt this policy. Nonetheless, students have clearly devoted plenty of thought to the matter.
“There shouldn’t be a rule, and people should be able to say something to their roommates about it,” said Kathlyn Pattillo ’12.
Other students remarked on the various technicalities that might hamper the rule.
“You don’t want to go around crapping on people, but there’s no rule explicitly telling you not to,” said David Preddy ’13.
“It is going to be difficult to enforce,” said Alix Korda, a junior also at Tufts.
Another indication of the rule’s success will be to what extent other schools adopt it in one form or another.
“Frankly, I’m disappointed that Wesleyan isn’t instating the opposite law. I’d like my roommate to be forbidden from having sex when I’m not in the room,” said Max Nussenbaum ’13. “It makes me feel left out!”