<p>Early 80s?</p>
<p>I went to college from 1972 through 1976, and guests of both genders were allowed in all dorms, 24 hours a day. Some but not all of the dorms were co-ed. I lived in an all-women’s dorm at one point, and male guests used our bathrooms for lack of an alternative; there was no bathroom set aside for men.</p>
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<p>Because you don’t think it’s a problem?</p>
<p>I’m surprised this is still an issue. We had coed bathrooms at Penn over 30-35 years ago. It’s startling for maybe day one but then the rooms get together and decide how to handle it. I remember, there were two tags on the bathroom door - OCCUPIED/FREE and MALE/FEMALE. So, if a girl was in the bathroom, it would be flipped to OCCUPIED/FEMALE, thus another girl could go in and if it was OCCUPIED/MALE, only another boy could go in. This is not rocket science.</p>
<p>If someone had to go to the bathroom really bad, they asked. By October, it really wasn’t an issue.</p>
<p>My Dd attended a large state flagship and on a visit I ended up staying a night in her dorm room due to extenuating circumstances. When I showered and looked down and saw big boy feet under the barrier, it was not appealing.</p>
<p>The showers were stalls like a public restroom with about a 10-12 inch gap between the floor and the barrier. The entire bathroom was like a junior high bathroom- big sinks counters, a shower area (but stalls not open) and toilet rooms. No way to put an “occupied” note on the door.</p>
<p>At that time, it was take any room you could get so I don’t know how successful the bid would be for a single sex floor.</p>
<p>Use common sense and no adaptation is required.</p>
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<p>In many dorms, there would be occasions when you would look down and see two pair of feet in the next shower stall.</p>
<p>I guess it says something about my state of mind in college but I have no recollection of bathrooms at all!</p>
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<p>Yes, this dorm was known for its strictness! At that time, parents could even put their daughters on a list, which meant the girls had to sign out whenever they left the dorm in the evenings, then sign back in! We all had to be in by a certain time - 1 am, I think. It was a beautiful dorm, built in the 20s. It had a large swimming pool. Lunches and dinners were all sit-down, and we had waiters (male college students). I lived there all four years, I liked it so much. My sister made it one year, then bolted! </p>
<p>Times change. Now only Sunday dinner is sit-down, and I saw an ad for birth control on one of the dorm bulletin boards when I was there for a visit! Guys are allowed on the halls a few times a week now.</p>
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That is fine but why would you want to over-pay for dorm rooms and have to put up with those conditions for years ?
Again you describe occasional use for your male guests. Did you have male guests every single day for 4 years ?</p>
<p>Amherst plans on demolishing a third of its dorms over the next 5 years. I’m sure the fact that they were all built shortly before they went co-ed has something to do with it:
[Davis</a> Dormitory: 1963-2012 - YouTube](<a href=“Davis Dormitory: 1963-2012 - YouTube”>Davis Dormitory: 1963-2012 - YouTube)</p>
<p>Both of my daughters ruled out colleges that they liked but once they found out the dorms were co-ed by room, let alone the bathrooms being co-ed, they immediately dropped it from consideration. It made them uncomfortable and became a deal breaker. To each their own.</p>
<p>Do you mean modesty still exists, even in the 21st century? :)</p>
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<p>Pretty close to every day. The dorm where I lived was centrally located, and a group of friends hung out there routinely. Some of those people were guys, even though the building was a women’s dorm. And on many weekends, some of the women living in our section would have overnight male guests, who used the showers as well as the other facilities in the bathrooms. None of this was any big deal.</p>
<p>It wasn’t putting up with those conditions. The guys were like friends or brothers - I didn’t care. We Americans are awfully squeamish. If it’s about sex appeal there’s always the possibility that your same sex neighbor is LGBT. I just don’t see what the big deal is.</p>
<p>One of the advantages of community bathrooms in colleges & the workplace is that they are more welcoming to those who are lgbt.
Of course they need to be designed to incorporate more privacy than a wall of urinals or shared shower heads, but very feasible.</p>
<p>The big deal for me, personally, is that I really don’t want to be naked on front of men I’m not currently sexually intimate with. </p>
<p>I’m not squeamish about sex in the slightest and I really don’t care about lesbians one way or the other. </p>
<p>I just prefer to be dressed to at least some degree around platonic male friends. In college, I would have felt this way even more strongly. </p>
<p>I had brothers. It’s realllly not the same.</p>
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<p>I saw more of people’s bodies at the gym swimming laps than from my dormmates in the bathroom. </p>
<p>Totally agree with BobbyCT that this is very much a “to each their own” situation.</p>
<p>@MLH - My parents soooo would have put me on that list!</p>
<p>I also hate when people ascribe sexual squeamishness to something like this. </p>
<p>I had so damned many guys asking me for dates in college, I could barely make it out of the cafeteria the first few months of my years on campus. I really didn’t need the added hassle of being caught half clothed</p>
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<p>You wouldn’t be in that situation. Showering is the only bathroom activity when people are naked. In a co-ed dorm bathroom (and in most single-sex dorm bathrooms), there is usually a hook or shelf in the shower stall, away from the water spray, where you put your clothes. You enter the shower stall wearing clothing, and you leave it wearing clothing.</p>
<p>Right. Well I want to dry my hair first. </p>
<p>It’s immaterial. If my club ever gets coed showers in the locker room, which I highly doubt, I will join another club. </p>
<p>As for the rest of it, I honestly don’t care what other people do</p>