Tufts University has taken a bold step toward regulating sexual activity in dorm rooms. The school, whose main campus is in Medford, Mass., instituted a new policy for students with roommates in on-campus housing: No sex while the other roommate is in the room, and no sexual activity should interfere with a roommate's privacy, study, or sleep.
The Office of Residential Life and Learning is behind the rule, the Tufts Daily reports. The office says it is responding to a large number of complaints in recent years about roommates' sexual activities.
"There were incidents that occurred last year, and in the past, where residents of rooms started to feel uncomfortable with what their roommates were doing in the room," Assistant Director for Community and Judicial Affairs Carrie Ales-Rich tells the Daily. "This happened more often than we'd like."
Ales-Rich told the paper that the goal of the policy isn't to regulate sexual activity but rather to create a line of communication between roommates.
"We want to make perfectly clear that we do not want to hinder someone from engaging in any personal or private activity," she says. "But when it becomes uncomfortable for the roommate, we want to have something in place that empowers the residents to have a good conversation with the roommate."
Reaction from the students interviewed by the Daily didn't seem very positive.
"I don't think it's necessary," one student said. "I think they are imposing something that should be decided between roommates."
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