Ban On Guests Protects Students Anti-Guests Students Free To Move Off Campus.

Forget the rhetoric.

The controversy over Washington State University’s ban on overnight dormitory guests is about sex - not whether Mom can spend the night during Mom’s Weekend. Dormers want the freedom to have a current heart throb sleep over.

The WSU student body president made this point clear last year by calling the policy “the most puritanical, strictest rule of any school in the state.” Regent R.M. “Mac” Crow, a ban supporter, correctly observed that the hubbub wasn’t about student rights but was rather “a moral issue.” Said he: “It’s what you personally believe in.”

Everyone knows that many college students engage in sex - even in WSU dormitories. And all Washington public colleges but WSU accommodate dorm lovers. But that doesn’t mean WSU should sanction licentiousness. The ban should continue.

Students, 18 and 19 years old and out on their own for the first time, think they’re mature enough for college. But few are. Most are prone to do dumb things.

At 18, Regena Coghlan, for example, thought she was responsible enough to party hard. Now, she’s paralyzed after falling out a sorority window drunk. Also at 18, Jason Wilkins mooned friends from a third-floor window, fell, and seriously injured his back. Both are suing the University of Idaho for not protecting them from irresponsibility.

The WSU ban gives some protection from premarital sex and its unwelcome consequences (college-ending pregnancies, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases). It also provides a reluctant youngster an excuse for not inviting a pushy partner to spend the night.

The freshman year makes or breaks many. Maybe that’s why WSU requires freshmen to stay in dormitories. Dorm life provides a safety net with structure for young adults adjusting to college life.

Sexual freedom would torpedo that structure and increase tension between roomies crammed into small cubicles. One is left out in the hallway while the other ruts.

Students who don’t like the policy are free to move off campus after their freshmen year. Until then, parents - many of whom have made stiff sacrifices to send Junior or Suzy Q to college, don’t want their money squandered on college-approved, “Animal House” excess.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Students are old enough to decide

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = EDITORIAL, COLUMN - From Both Sides CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board