A recent New York Times article documented the rise of lavish, single housing for university underclassmen. Colleges like Amherst and Swarthmore have recently implemented apartment-like residence halls that cater to the growing number of students who wish to reside in single housing, thus providing them with privacy and more elaborate digs than normal dormitories found at many other national colleges.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

Many university officials do, commenting that a greater emphasis on single housing will give students one more reason to hole themselves up in their room. With a greater importance on privacy, some students may never need to share their personal space or possessions with a roommate. Such arrangements often divorce students from the real world because they never have to learn the art of compromise, negotiation, or simple interaction they will ultimately encounter with co-workers, bosses or spouses.

Don't get me wrong, I respect the wishes of many upperclassmen that have dealt with the negative aspects of having a roommate and have decided against such living arrangements, but I find that providing single housing for demanding freshman would violate many of the lessons that college is supposed to teach.

As important as the academic realm of college is, there are other areas in which students should experience growth and maturity. Shared experiences such as housing provide students the opportunity to interact with their peers in ways that living alone does not.

The housing system at Notre Dame eliminates many barriers that would impede such necessary social maturity. Many students choose to live in a dorm for all four years because they so highly value the dorm life — one that does not allow students to live in a class-discriminated dorm but rather ensures that all four classes will come in contact with one another. Since Notre Dame does not have fraternities or sororities, the dorm is meant to provide many of the same social benefits without the potential for dangerous and even deadly rush practices. Dorm spirit unites many Notre Dame undergraduates who would seem to have very little in common other than a similarly colored sock-cap or sweatshirt that proudly announces their dorm allegiance. Furthermore, the abundance of doubles, triples, quads and even quints requires undergraduates to avoid isolation and instead to interact with the person or people they live with.

Living with a roommate means learning to compromise and having to live with idiosyncrasies and oddities you may never have imagined, such as your roommates' penchant for obnoxious country music or bizarre sleeping patterns. You may not always like your roommate. He or she may not be your best friend. Or he or she may. Nevertheless, the experience is an important one and should not be bypassed by increasingly demanding students who refuse to compromise and are accustomed to getting their way.

• Roommate Ruinations