From: WTOP Date: Aug. 26, 2011 Reporter: Michelle BaschWASHINGTON - Catholic University spent Thursday's "Moving Day" moving back to a policy the school held decades ago.

The university is largely ditching co-ed dorms and transitioning back to same-sex residence halls, starting with this fall's freshman class. Seven of the school's eight freshman dorms are now single-sex. The lone holdout dorm is an honors housing building that is co-ed by floor and also houses faculty members.

University President John Garvey says the policy sends a message to students about the respect they should show toward one another.

"There's very good social science evidence indicating that the rates of binge drinking and of hooking up are higher in co-ed residence halls than they are in single-sex residence halls," he says. "So if we can reduce the prospects for those kinds of behavior, that will be a good thing."

George Washington University Law Professor John Banzhaf has filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights over Catholic University's dorm decision, but Garvey thinks the policy will stand.

"I'm confident of a happy outcome, but not everybody's going to be happy," he says.

Incoming freshmen have mixed feelings about the change.

"I went to an all-boys boarding school for four years, so it's nothing different," says Tony Garofalo of Connecticut.

"It's going to be different, because I'm used to having guys everywhere," says Sara Gordon, a freshman from New Jersey. "So I guess all girls, you get used to it," she says.

"I think it's actually better that it's girls (in my dorm) because there's a lot less pressure to look good in your dorm room," says Samantha Abel from New York.

She also thinks the freshmen guys might have more trouble keeping their dorms clean than the women will.

"I already have people (men) asking me to do their laundry," she adds.

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