Bathroom wars hit MSU: This time, it’s unisex showers, toilets in honors dorm

Michigan State University’s $37 million renovation of Campbell Hall features the first unisex community bathrooms on campus
The arrangement is meant to offer flexibility as student populations change but has prompted concerns among parents and some students
Students shower and use toilets behind closed doors but share a common sink area

EAST LANSING — A nearly century-old dorm for honor students at Michigan State University reopened this fall with a $37.1 million facelift that included several amenities — including one that raised some eyebrows.

In addition to new windows, common spaces and mechanical upgrades, bathrooms are no longer separated by gender. They’re now community spaces, where single-stall showers, sinks and toilets are used by men and women alike.

It’s the first co-ed community bathroom of its kind at any of MSU’s dorms — and perhaps among Michigan public universities.

While students who spoke to Bridge Michigan said the arrangements are no big deal, concerns from parents and some residents are prompting the university to consider changes.

One parent wrote a letter to MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz worrying about towel-clad students of opposite genders sharing spaces. After the complaint, the university included a question about the bathrooms on a building survey of residents of the 260-bed dorm.

“While many students have expressed appreciation for the updated facilities, we did receive feedback from a few women in the building regarding the bathroom configuration ….,” Assistant Vice President Ray Gasser wrote in a recent email to parents that Bridge Michigan obtained.

“After consulting with campus leadership and the MSU Board of Trustees, we are working to establish some gender-designated bathrooms in Campbell Hall over fall break … Our goal is to support a safe, inclusive, and comfortable living environment for every student.”

Inside the Campbell Hall’s community bathroom at Michigan State University's campus. — Campbell Hall’s community bathrooms include individual shower stalls with doors that close. Some parents, though, are concerned that students still share common spaces. (Courtesy photo)

The flap is a new twist on culture wars around bathrooms in higher education, which usually center around transgender access. MSU has 27 dorms, 17 of which have community bathrooms designated for specific genders.

Michigan State switched to unisex bathrooms at Campbell Hall to provide “greater flexibility for the university as student populations shift over time,” MSU spokesperson Kat Cooper told Bridge in an email.

The dorm bathrooms feature doors with no gaps between showers and toilets. That provides privacy during showers, but requires students to intermingle in common sink areas after bathing.

“It’s not like it’s weird or anything,” first-year student Tyler Nguyen, 18, of Kentwood, near Grand Rapids, told Bridge Michigan.

Adeline Loftis, 17, agreed: “I really don’t even notice.”

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Speaking to Bridge, Board Trustee Dennis Denno admitted he’s from another generation and “honestly doesn’t know what students today are comfortable with.”

“I would like to see students have options with regard to having bathrooms for their own sex,” Denno said.

Trustee Mike Balow said he’s glad the university is looking into the situation.

“It’s important for young men and women at MSU to have the choice of privacy from the opposite sex when getting out of the shower and getting ready at the sink,” Balow said.

Tyler Nguyen poses for a photo in a common room. — MSU honors student Tyler Nguyen, a freshman who lives in Campbell Hall, says using community bathrooms are not “weird.” (Kim Kozlowski/Bridge Michigan)

Co-ed community bathrooms are a trend among renovated dorms on college campuses, said Kathy Hobgood, president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers International.

Traditional community bathrooms are inside a room that includes a row of sinks, a row of toilets and a row of showers sometimes only hidden by a curtain and almost never are co-ed, Hobgood said.

But a new trend features a common sink area with mirrors for students to groom themselves and a series of “individual pods” that include a shower, toilet and sink behind a full floor-to-ceiling door that locks.

“It’s sort of like at home, because everything you need is behind that closed, lockable door and you can’t see over or under a partition,” said Hobgood. “It turns a public bathroom into a semi-private bathroom.”

The new style increases students’ privacy and modernizes buildings, Hobgood said, adding that she is not aware of security or other issues that have arisen at other colleges with co-ed community bathrooms.

What’s more, students have adapted.

“Co-ed living in a building is not for everyone,” said Hobgood, an associate vice president at Clemson University in South Carolina. “You have to have a level of comfort.”