In every house except Mather and Leverett the assistants to the masters repeated Colvin's statement.

"We don't allow coed rooms," says Victoria Macy, assistant to the master of Adams House.

"There are no coed rooms in Eliot House. It's University policy, it's a simple as that," says Edith Mead Holway, assistant to the master of Eliot House.

But the secret coed rooms are there, and their residents like it.

"It's nice to have a guy around because I hate cockroaches, but Rob gets rid of them," says "Donna," who has a male roommate in a house where there are no coed rooms.

"If a guy bothers me, he's around to answer the phone. It's really nice. There's a lot of affection, purely non-sexual. Just having a male give you a hug every now and then is great," says Donna.

Putting together a coed room in another house usually requires some sort of switch. Donna and Rob had paired with another man and woman who also wanted to room together. The two males and two females entered the lottery together and then changed doubles.

"People don't really understand our situation. They have to think Rob is gay to deal with it, since he's not my boyfriend. He's not gay, but people need to think so," Donna says.

Another "illegal" coed room did involve a boyfriend--the kind that came attached to a roommate. "I had a lot of trouble with my female roommate, because her boyfriend was always there. They fought a lot, and it was very disruptive. It was a hassle--there were always more people in the room than it could take," says "Caroline."

"But her boyfriend's room was always empty, and I got along really well with his roommate," says Caroline. "He had the qualities I wanted in a roommate."

So she traded rooms with her roommate's boyfriend.

Censure

"Guys can get pretty boring sometimes," says "Bruce," a member of a legitimate coed group who asked that their names not be used.

"Even in an innocent rooming group, people have a hard time understanding. I've gotten some negative reactions," says his roommate "Karen." "Last year a freshman asked if she could see my room, and when she found out my roommates were guys, she was really taken aback."

An illegitimate coed group worried what their floater would think. "We were worried he'd be a real prude and he'd tell the senior tutor if I didn't move out," says "Debbie." "He turned out to be cool, but we were really nervous for a while."