All Jennifer Weiler wants to do is go to the bathroom in peace.

Weiler, a freshman at Vermont’s Green Mountain College, filed a lawsuit against the Vermont Department of Public Safety on Dec. 11 over the alleged lack of single-sex bathrooms in the school’s coed dormitories. There are only coed bathrooms in her dormitory.

Weiler claims that the coed bathrooms in the dorms are in violation of the plumbing and building codes that were adopted by the state of Vermont in 2003, according to a copy of the formal complaint obtained by The Daily Orange.

The codes state that where restroom facilities are required in public buildings, separate facilities shall be provided for each gender. Weiler and her attorney, Pamela Moreau, believe the school is in violation of these codes.

In the formal complaint document, Vermont DPS said the codes only apply to bathrooms that existed before the codes were in place if the plumbing has been changed or altered. DPS also said coed bathrooms do not constitute a health hazard to students, according to the document.

If GMC were to build a new dormitory or update the plumbing in an existing dormitory, the bathrooms must be separated by gender. DPS has not enforced the codes on the school since the plumbing in the dormitories has not been changed.

GMC declined to comment on the lawsuit itself because it was filed against DPS and not the college, said Kevin Coburn, the director of communications at GMC. Most students do not view the coed bathrooms as an issue, Coburn said.

‘There are multi-gender floors here at GMC with separate men’s and women’s facilities. There are also multi-gender floors with one shared bathroom,’ he said in an e-mail interview. ‘In the latter case, students meet early in the year with residential life staff to work out guidelines for sharing the bathroom.’

If students are uncomfortable with the situation, they can work with residential life staff to find a more suitable living situation after a two-week housing freeze in the beginning of the semester, Coburn said.

The college offered Weiler the option of moving locations, but the alternative building is in a less desirable location and would be disruptive to her, said Moreau, Weiler’s lawyer.

According to the document, the plaintiff and other students are uncomfortable with the current bathroom situation.

‘The coed bathrooms have no doors on the showers, just flimsy plastic curtains,’ the document said. ‘Men will use the toilets without closing the doors.’

A sign was posted on the bathroom door identifying the bathroom for use by women only after an initial complaint by Weiler. Males continued to use the bathroom, however, prompting Weiler to take further action, according to the document.

Samantha Woolhiser, a freshman environmental studies and pre-law major at GMC, said the coed bathrooms do not constitute a problem with most students and are a sign of community between the genders.

‘I believe the coed bathrooms show that college is a community,’ Woolhiser said. ‘How can you sit next to a fellow classmate in psychology but not feel comfortable when he or she is in the stall next to you? Coed bathrooms are the norm, and it’s time students became used to it.’

A bathroom can sometimes be an uncomfortable place for some people, and it is uncommon to find coed bathrooms for men and women to share in public buildings, Moreau said.

‘There are plenty of places where it might make sense and be less threatening, in a stadium, for example, where women’s bathrooms have long lines and use of bathrooms is virtually anonymous,’ Moreau said. ‘But a dorm is such an intimate place, and people disrobe to get in the shower. There is not at all the same kind of intimacy in most other public buildings, yet coed bathrooms are not allowed.’

The coed bathrooms are different from unisex bathrooms, which are single bathrooms in use by one person at a time accompanied by a lock, Moreau said. On the other hand, coed bathrooms are open for multiple users at once.

Moreau said she and Weiler do not believe coed bathrooms should be enforced on any individual who feels uncomfortable. They would like to see DPS enforce separate single-sex bathrooms at GMC, Moreau said.

medelane@syr.edu

Published on January 25, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani