<p>I’ll describe the coed bathrooms from my freshman year (20+ years ago). Large room with maybe 4-5 stalls. No urinals. 4-5 sinks with mirrors. Around the corner from the sinks, 4 shower stalls with curtains. All with hooks outside on the walls. Each shower stall had a triangular prominence and the shower heads came off the sides of the triangle. Therefore each shower stall could fit 2 students. Most of the time, you got a shower stall to yourself, but if you were in a rush and ran into, say, your roommate in the shower you could hop in with her. Of course, you also sometimes got boy/girl combos in there too (platonic and otherwise).</p>
<p>As I previously mentioned—our freshman unit was essentially divided into 2 sections by a large public entryway with staircase, a lot of traffic. There were about 40 students in the unit—maybe 14 on one side with a bathroom somewhat close to the entryway, and 26 on the other with their bathroom being as far away from the entryway as you could get. So if the bathrooms were single sex, there were about 8 women who would have to not only walk by a perfectly good bathroom, but cross this entryway and then walk down the whole rest of the hallway in robe/towel/whatever to get to the women’s room (and therefore about 16 men who would have to do the same).</p>
<p>This was so quickly proven not to be convenient that even the mostly diehard proponents of single sex bathrooms quickly changed their minds. The women said sharing with the guys was better than being on parade up and down the hallway and through the common entryway, and it also proved more prudent when, for example, one’s period arrived suddenly or one had the stomach flu (can’t imagine having to run past a usable bathroom and 18 rooms with such an emergency). </p>
<p>As far as cleanliness, men and women can both be neatniks, and can definitely both be slobs. Both groups had their issues!</p>