by kairos339 on Sat Aug 07, 2004 8:18 am
I have to say, although it may be somewhat common at certain schools, the whole "mixed floor" concept is a pretty interesting one to me. In all honesty, the idea of sharing a floor, let alone a bathroom, with the opposite sex never really crossed my mind... probably because I'm at an American university, where the rules are a little different. It's a big state school, so it's not like the dorm system is considered rigid or conservative by any stretch of the imagination- but even still, in all the dorms, there are visitation hours for the opposite sex. (Do you have those at St. A's?) And in the single sex dorms, a guy/girl has to be escorted around the floor- so a guy can't just be wandering around a girls floor alone, he has to have a girl with him, And vice-versa. It's not that bad, I've lived in both co-ed and single sex dorms, and they were fine, although the escort policy IS annoying at times... Example: You're in the middle of watching a great movie, and one of your guy friends has to BADLY use the one-and-only male bathroom in the building, which is 4 floors down and hidden in a remote corner. So, you have to either get up out of your warm 'n comfy chair and take him so that he doesn't get lost/get caught un-escorted...or you tell him to hold it and risk having to clean up the puddle he leaves on your rug. Hmm...
As a girl, I can't say that a mixed system makes me feel intimidated, upset, happy, or anything at all, at this point. It's just an interesting change, with lots of pros and cons. I guess I'll see how things go in September.
*On a more personal note, I mentioned this whole "mixed" floor and unisex bathroom concept to my boyfriend here, (who's already a little grouchy about having his girlfriend alone and across an ocean for an entire year...) and he was rather, uhh, unenthusiastic about the whole thing. Maybe it was just him being protective, jealous, unsure... I don't know, but I could definitely understand why some might have a few misgivings about strange/drunk men (or women) roaming around the floor, toilets, showers, etc...