This isn't Ally McBeal. It's the college dorm.

Haverford educators concede that boyfriend and girlfriend pairs have taken advantage of the option. But they say the aim is to replicate a family situation, where students share a home with separate bedrooms. The change was made partly in response to gay students, some of whom say single-sex housing policies make them uncomfortable and are discriminatory.

At Connecticut College, the scene is similar to Haverford: Men and women share class notes, bathrooms, and plenty of late-night pizzas.

"There's a sense of community here. I feel very safe," says Sara Jamieson, a senior majoring in economics, as she sits in her room in a former hotel.

Ms. Jamieson and several other students agree that mixed dorms encourage friendships rather than dating. What they don't do, the students argue firmly, is promote promiscuity.

"I have just as many guy friends as girl friends," she says. "I can't imagine it any other way. If you give people more freedom, ultimately they become more responsible."

In fact, the students say mixing men and women makes an environment more balanced: "Girls who spend too much time together get catty and gossipy," Jamieson says.

"And guys tend to break stuff when we get together," chimes in Peter Kroll, a senior. "If men are around men all day, they can easily become pigs."

But Mr. Kroll finds co-ed living a little immodest at times, especially in the bathrooms.

"I would like to separate boys' and girls' bathrooms," he says with an uneasy look. He and some others believe the single-sex version provides more privacy. And there's a social element in co-ed bathrooms that some students say belongs in a different venue. "The bathroom is a place where you make yourself presentable," Kroll says.

Jamieson, on the other hand, isn't bothered by men sudsing up nearby and has especially enjoyed what she calls "shower chat," where every morning students file into separate showers to talk and sing songs like "Manic Monday," by The Bangles.

Such arrangements don't mean there aren't rules. In Connecticut College dorms, as in most nationwide, students are warned against underage drinking and taught honor codes that emphasize respect. Dorm dwellers also establish bathroom etiquette, including being well-covered as you enter and leave.

There are still institutions, of course, that cater to the view that separation is best (see story, left). Mississippi, for instance, allows no state schools to mix the sexes in dorms.

And at some private schools like Hillsdale College in Michigan, single-sex dorms still resonate with students. "I would never consider going to a two-sex living environment," says Tara Thelen, a senior. "It would bother my morals and standards. It would disrupt my studying and social life. Most people here appreciate the privacy."

Less controversial is coeducation's effect on the classroom and campus in general. Teachers say integrating men and women has livened up discussions and broadened curriculum to include more women's contributions.

In class, professors say that while the desire to be politically correct can at times eclipse expression, for the most part the combination of women and men completes the picture.

English Prof. George Willauer saw Connecticut College transform as men filtered onto campus. Before, he says, it was known as "a suitcase college." Women would leave on weekends for Amherst, Yale, or New York for dates. Now, weekends are a time for sports, theater, and parties, and men and women share leadership roles, he says.

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