Russell Fazio, an Ohio State psychology professor who has studied interracial roommates there and at Indiana University, discovered an intriguing academic effect.
One of the lawyers Theodore Orson compared the ban to that on interracial marriages which was overturned by the court in the 1960s. Jonny Dymond reports.
That same study found that randomly assigned interracial roommates at Ohio State broke up before the end of the quarter about twice as often as same-race roommates.
Because interracial roommate relationships are often problematic, Dr. Fazio said, many students would like to move out, but university housing policies may make it hard to leave.
Dr. Fazio's Indiana study found that three times as many randomly assigned interracial roommates were no longer living together at the end of the semester, compared with white roommates.
“At Indiana University, where housing was not so tight, more interracial roommates split up, ” he said. “Here at Ohio State, where housing was tight, they were told to work it out.