College co-ed bathrooms in dorms?

[Phoebe]

Help?!? Is this for real? I saw this in "parenthood" where one character is a freshman at Berkeley. I thought "no way" and googled it... And apparently this is a thing that's actually out there????

I am so behind the curve. And dd17 will be going to college next year. We haven't gone on a dorm room tour yet...

Shocked and disturbed....

I thought the same thing! ETA: There were a couple floors in my college dorm that were co-ed but the bathrooms were in-suite.

[Vishenka69]

Many colleges were build before the schools went co-ed, so there's only one bathroom per floor. Newer buildings have more varied floor plans. I wouldn't say that sharing the bathroom with guys led to more promiscuity.

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[SoonerTexan]

Ours were separated by hallway, but on the same floor with a bathroom per hallway. The bathroom setup would have been awkward. The shower area was too open.

[Sheherezade]

We had coed bathrooms after year one. Year one I lived in an all girl suite with five of us sharing an apartment style space.

Most of the schools we've looked at for DS have SS by floor or wing with bathrooms in that area. The buildings themselves are coed but the sections within the buildings are not. FWIW my son would never walk down a coed hall in his boxers. He'd take his jeans to the bathroom. Modesty exists in both genders.


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[spotty_dog]

Wow, this is seriously *not* the norm? I'm a little flabbergasted. I requested a single-sex floor for my first year of college, because I was very nervous about coed bathrooms (I went on an overnight visit while I was in high school, and simply never peed that whole evening and night!) It was the only single-sex floor in the school, though there was also a womens-only building. The second year I "got with the times", and my roommates and I went ahead and let them assign us to another floor in the same building, which was mixed-sex with coed bathrooms.

I honestly thought that, 16-17 years ago, we might be the last archaic college campus that still had any segregated floors available. XD

Anyway, yeah, it wasn't a big deal. They were boys, sure, but maybe pooping next to them is why they never seemed like anything more than brothers to us. We usually went to and from the bathroom in a bathrobe with our shower caddies...changing generally happened in your room unless you were really coordinated enough to keep your clothes off the wet floor.

Maybe because it was a pretty small group -- I would say two "quads" and four doubles, some of which were single-occupancy, shared the bathroom, or about 10-12 people total -- but I definitely knew those people well enough not to feel like they were going to take pictures of me in the bathroom! And I don't really see how single sex bathrooms would negate that risk. Pervs come in all shapes.

[peggyfromwastate]

My dd locks the door at home and won't walk from the bathroom to the room in just a bathrobe. And that's like... 6 feet of hallway in our house.

She always complains about sharing the bathroom with her brothers (before moving here she had her own bathroom in the basement-- lots of privacy). This could get interesting!

I really guess I just don't see the point of coed bathrooms. Like mentioned here earlier, we segregate bathrooms in the public... Vishenka makes a good point about the difficulty when dorms were built before coed halls were all the rage... But beyond that? Why? It just seems unnecessary and like it would be awkward for body conscious people.

[Sheherezade]

FWIW, all the bigger schools we've looked at seem to make an effort to have all different types of living arrangements available. Obviously, the ones with options like fewer people sharing a bathroom cost more for housing - and they probably also go more quickly so you need to commit to the school more quickly and get in line for that housing. UMich had an all female dorm, but the tour guide did present it in a kind of weird way ("I think they have tea parties and stuff in there....*giggle*" ) that I thought was unkind. For a lot of schools you can see the housing layouts online; fewer schools are giving tours now of the housing though for security reasons.

[Ladybug]

I would have a seperate bathroom from my husband if I could. LOL. Somethings I just don't want to share!!!

[v-girl]

I would have a seperate bathroom from my husband if I could. LOL. Somethings I just don't want to share!!!

Ditto.

[Ladybug]

Tangent regarding bigender bathrooms:

I'm a school teacher at an all boys school and my office has a bathroom in it. Once my (male) boss popped to ask a question and use my bathroom before our weekly administrative meeting. Seriously? I get to listen to you piss and try to act like I can't hear it…or that I'm now picturing you peeing...15 feet away from my desk. He didn't know the door wouldn't shut unless you locked it. So he didn't. So it swung opened while he was vigorously pissing. He apologized when he realized it was open when he came out. I waved it off and quickly changed the subject, but it still pops in my head sometimes while he's running these meetings. I had to tell the other director to zip up his fly before he left. I share a bathroom with *a lot* of boys right now. It's overrated. :l

[poky]

I would have a seperate bathroom from my husband if I could. LOL. Somethings I just don't want to share!!!

I had this at our old house. LOVED IT.

[MrsK]

When I studied abroad, we had co-ed floors/bathrooms. It was a little surprising that a guy lived in the next room but not a big deal. One of my friends commented that sitting in a stall and having a conversation with a male friend who was using the next stall was probably more (awkwardly) intimate than she'd been with her ex-husband.

I had forgotten my dream of having a bathroom separate from my husband. In my dream house, DrK and the K Bros will share a bathroom and I'll share with Lambie.

A few years ago, I read an article about colleges contemplating mixed-sex dorm ROOMS. The mere suggestion. . . "Hon, how would you feel if our someday-daughter called us from her college dorm and told us she was rooming with somebody named John?" . . . had DrK in a panic.

[JDAZ11]

College co-ed bathrooms in dorms?

A few years ago, I read an article about colleges contemplating mixed-sex dorm ROOMS. The mere suggestion. . . "Hon, how would you feel if our someday-daughter called us from her college dorm and told us she was rooming with somebody named John?" . . . had DrK in a panic.

My mom was just telling me the other day about at least one school that was doing this. I'll have to ask her again which one it was. It is apparently very optional - but still being offered.

Incidentally, my school started the co-ed bathroom thing when I was a junior and living off campus. My sister claims it is was a big factor in her decision not to go there.

[poky]

A few years ago, I read an article about colleges contemplating mixed-sex dorm ROOMS. The mere suggestion. . . "Hon, how would you feel if our someday-daughter called us from her college dorm and told us she was rooming with somebody named John?" . . . had DrK in a panic.

I roomed with my bf in college, 20 years ago, in the dorms (which, as I mentioned, were like apartments) - ours was a huge studio on the top floor with vaulted ceilings and big windows that looked out over forest. It was awesome.

[Sheherezade]

Met my DH in coed housing in college 27 years ago. There are benefits!!