At most colleges, men and women have lived harmoniously together in coed dorms — often just a floor, wing or few doors away — for decades.

Student activists at Ohio and Denison universities are now pushing for the final step in the student housing revolution: to allow members of the opposite sex to share rooms.

The movement started about 10 years ago at a few small, progressive liberal-arts colleges in an effort to help gay and transgender students feel comfortable in on-campus housing. But more colleges are embracing the idea to allow all students, gay or straight, to pick the most-compatible roommates.

In Athens, the Student Senate voted last week to support an effort to start a test program next fall at Ohio University. School leaders are studying the issue.

Gay, bisexual and transgender students at Ohio University currently can request special accommodations, but they have to "out themselves" to the housing staff to do so, said Amelia Shaw, vice commissioner of the Student Senate's GLBT panel.

"Can you imagine being put into such an uncomfortable situation? I don't have to go in and say, 'I'm straight,"' she said.

Shaw noted such accommodations often means students are put into single-occupancy rooms, which are more costly.

Campus housing officials have been independently studying the issue since the summer.

"We're in the business of creating safe environments, and we think this is just the next logical step," said Judy Piercy, associate director for residential housing.

About 55 schools nationwide, including the Columbus College of Art & Design, Miami University and Oberlin College in Ohio, allow men and woman to live in "gender-neutral" housing. Freshmen typically aren't eligible. Some schools have specific housing for gay and the small number of transgender students on campus.