# Did your college dorms have any coed bathrooms? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2001, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180 "2001-05-22T13:22:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/21 "2001-05-23T11:52:16Z")
Yes. The halls of residence at Edinburgh were in theory divided so that each corridor was male or female and had its own bathrooms. In practice, people used whatever bathroom was available on the floor, and as people moved out or were kicked out rooms were reassigned regardless of gender. No amusing incidents that I can recall, although finding human faeces on the stairs did make me wonder whether there were enough bathrooms… ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/22 "2001-05-23T13:25:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by False\_God \* > \*\*Co-ed bathrooms, IMHO, are one of the easiest ways to actively discourage cohabitation before marriage. \*\* Heh heh. During my sophomore year at Brown ('92-93), I lived in a dorm with co-ed bathrooms. No rules, no time limits, no special situations. Just co-ed. Like the bathrooms in your house. At no other time in my life have I know so many people who were living in such close proximaty to be having sex with one another. That was an interesting year… ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/23 "2001-05-23T15:41:50Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by mattk_ > **No amusing incidents that I can recall, although finding human faeces on the stairs did make me wonder whether there were enough bathrooms…** My then boyfriend’s college had a Phantom Shitter of the Night. Odd. Very, very odd. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bad_Astronomer)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/24 "2001-05-23T21:00:40Z")
I went to the University of Chicago in 1982/3 (I left after a year, long story). At Woodward Court, my dorm, the co-ed floor had co-ed bathrooms. I realized quickly that this wasn’t a whole lot different than being at home with my sister, so it was no big deal. But then I realized that the stalls were placed on the _far side_ of the urinals from the door. I stopped using those fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/25 "2001-05-24T04:12:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Bad Astronomer \* > \*\*But then I realized that the stalls were placed on the _far side_ of the urinals from the door. > > I stopped using those fairly quickly. \*\* Maybe it’s just my lack of waste-products-all-over-the-place experience, but I don’t exactly understand what’s going on. Please explain. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bad_Astronomer)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/26 "2001-05-24T04:42:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FireUnderpantsBoobs \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by The Bad Astronomer \* > > \*\*But then I realized that the stalls were placed on the _far side_ of the urinals from the door. > > > > I stopped using those fairly quickly. \*\* > > Maybe it’s just my lack of waste-products-all-over-the-place experience, but I don’t exactly understand what’s going on. Please explain. Thank you. \*\* Imagine the scene: Our Hero, the (soon to be) Bad Astronomer, is standing there, expelling waste products in an upright position, and in walks his neighbor, a comely lass of his acquaintance. She must stroll _past_ Our Hero to perform her own bodily function. Her view may include, uh, things best kept to Our Hero’s own privacy. Got it? Stalls have doors, the better to have privacy with. Urinals are open and free, viewable by all. No Privacy at all (note the capital pee). ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/27 "2001-05-24T05:49:57Z")
I went to a fine arts college. We had co-ed **dressing rooms.** :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/28 "2001-05-24T11:06:50Z")
Not at my school. The freshman dorm building were co-ed, but each floor was either male-only or female-only. There was one bathroom on each floor. For the upperclassmen, the dorm rooms were either male-only or female-only, and each suite or single had its own bathroom. These were just the official room assignments, though. There were no rules prohibiting co-habitation or co-defecation. Heck, during senior year, my suite housed the four guys who had been official assigned to it, plus our respective girlfriends. Somewhere there must have a suite that wasn’t being used at all. –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/29 "2001-05-24T13:24:48Z")
At RIT we had co-ed floors (each room had either two male or two female occupants) but seperate bathrooms. There were two identical bathrooms on each hall, and the gender of each one was decided as a matter of convenience. That didn’t prevent all sorts of interesting shennegans, though. ---
**Author:** ![Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Tiki_God)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/30 "2001-05-24T14:32:44Z")
Co-ed bathrooms at my college? Ha! Seriously though I couldn’t begin to imagine if we did have them. No I’m not thinking about girls running around topless in front of me or in towls I’m thinking about all the cases of shower peepers that we had this last year. Just about every building in my place has one sex per floor and the ones that don’t have individual bathrooms in their rooms. Anyways the problem got so bad with guys going into the girls shower rooms that they had to put card reader locks on all the doors. Now you have to use your student ID to get into the restroom. And you can only get into the restroom on your floor with the ID. Crazy shit… ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/31 "2001-05-24T18:29:18Z")
I did my first year and a half of university at San Francisco State. At the time, there was a special wing in one of the dorms called the Alternity Wing. We were allowed to paint the hallway walls, to build lofts in our bedrooms, we had a special kitchen that only we could use (the rest of the kitchens in the dorms were open to any resident), and we had - yes - co-ed bathrooms. It was never really a big deal to us. The level of trust on the wing was so high that we never even locked our bedroom doors OR our lockers in that bathroom. It was quite amazing, really, when I think about it. Unfortunately, they shut the wing down in the late '80s. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2001, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/32 "2001-05-25T06:56:56Z")
I don’t remember any coed bathrooms, but maybe I just never went in any…of all the dorms I lived in, there were two rooms connected to one bathroom, and in each of the two rooms it was either all women or all men. (Some rooms had private baths also.) Of course, with girlfriends and boyfriends staying over and the like, they may only have been officially single-sex anyways… ---
**Author:** ![ColonelMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@ColonelMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelMoose)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2001, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/33 "2001-05-25T07:27:29Z")
Pfft… co-ed bathrooms. At the liberal arts college I currently attend (emphasis on the liberal, in every concievable sense of the word), I have yet to encounter a bathroom that isn’t de facto co-ed. Most of the ones in public places have been made co-ed by the removal/vandalism of door plaques or other identifying marks on the exterior, and it isn’t surprising at all to see random females wander into the men’s bathroom. I don’t know if it works the other way (most of the men I know stick to the men’s side, out of respect, fear, or both), but it’s one of those things you learn to deal with/love, like seeing unshaved arms/legs/whatever on women or skirts on men. Playing with social norms can be so much fun. I love college. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2001, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/34 "2001-05-25T08:05:12Z")
Crown College, UCSC (just up the hill from Sengkelat’s Cowell College), late 70’s. Eight dorm buildings, three floors each, one bathroom per floor, all coed save for one all-women’s floor. I think all colleges at UCSC were/are coed. Never had any problems, never thought it was strange. Actually, the truly strange thing was that on my first day at college, the bathrooms did indeed have “Men” or “Women” signs on them. I asked someone if I was really going to have to spend the entire year walking upstairs everytime to use the bathroom. I was told that the signs were only there on the first day to keep the parents from freaking out. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/35 "2001-05-26T02:48:25Z")
**U.C. Berkeley** , natch. I worked on student and professional staff and only had one problem w/coed bathrooms (a peeper) in the six years I oversaw the halls. It was funny explaining to the parents (who obviously didn’t read the housing literature) that it was like a whole flock of siblings sharing space–heck, after awhile, you’d recognize the person in the stall next door by their flipflops and have full-on coeducational on-the-pot discourses. Probably the people who were most uncomfortable with the coed bathrooms were significant others or single-night “guests” who weren’t used to having 30 strangers seeing them like that so early in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![Pammipoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/87869e/32.png) [@Pammipoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pammipoo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180/36 "2001-05-26T08:16:15Z")
Bridgewater State, where my ex boyfriend goes to school. His dorms had seperate bathrooms, but since he lived in a majority-maled dorm, the female bathroom was rarely in working condition. I think everytime I ever went in there, the toilets were broken. So those of us chicks who frequented the hall eventually gave up on the ladies’ room, and made the mens’ room coed. It worked for us, nobody had any serious complaints. I doubt the school cared one way or another. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-college-dorms-have-any-coed-bathrooms/66180.md?page=1)