ASHLAND, Ore. -- When Southern Oregon University junior Montique Holman gets dressed in the morning, she slips into the closet of the dormitory room she shares with sophomore Stephen Williams.

KGW photo

A professor lectures students in a college class.

But other residents on SOU's new gender-inclusive dormitory in Diamond Hall at the Ashland campus are less concerned with modesty in front of their opposite-sex roommates.

It's just not that big a deal, residents say. And it's not anything new. Scores of gender-inclusive dorms exist at colleges and universities nationwide.

"Some people make a big deal about this, but it's just life," says junior Amber Templeton. "We are one of the later colleges to get this, and it's pretty cool."

Holman and Stephens are two of the 14 inaugural residents of the dorm.