Traditionally, all on-campus bathrooms are designated for only one sex. Although independent dormitories usually only house one sex per hall, most co-ed selective houses have men and women interspersed throughout their space. Some selective house students returned to campus this fall to find bathrooms surprisingly designated as co-ed. It remains unclear who posted the signs. According to Pat Lloyd, manager of residence hall operations for Duke Housing Management, her department had nothing to do with the change. Lloyd explained that these kinds of changes are usually initiated by individual dormitories working in conjunction with deans from the Office of Student Development. But Dean of Student Development Barbara Baker said her office had nothing to do with the redesignation of the bathrooms. "It is my understanding that the bathrooms are single-sex and the residents have to go up or down stairs," she said. "Most of the feedback we receive is that students prefer single-sex bathrooms." Since the residence halls opened, Maxwell House and Brownstone Dormitory -- two co-ed selective houses -- held dorm meetings and decided to revert back to single-sex bathrooms. "The dorm-wide consensus was to keep them single-sex," said Daniel Ramirez, a graduate student and resident adviser in Maxwell House. "Students decided [this] on their own initiative." Members of Brownstone reached a similar conclusion. "We took a vote and decided to keep them single-sex," said Trinity senior and Brownstone resident Lisa Galluzzo. Katie Pettiss, a Trinity junior and Brownstone member, added that the inconvenience caused by maintaining single-sex bathrooms was minimal. Although some residents need to walk up two flights of stairs to get to a bathroom, they are accustomed to this inconvenience. The dorm has had co-ed floors for many years and never received information concerning this year's change, leaving members to speculate about the possible source of the new signs. "We are under the impression they did this because we have co-ed floors," said Brownstone President Jared Strauss, a Trinity senior. The third floor of Brownstone is the only bathroom still marked as co-ed but because the floor is all-male and independent, and Brownstone residents automatically considered it an all-male facility. Members of Round Table dormitory said their bathrooms had never been marked as co-ed. But now three of the dorm's bathrooms have signs that read, "By temporary order with approval from Housing Management, this bathroom is designated as a [single-sex] bathroom." However, Cassy Marshall, a Trinity sophomore living on the first floor, said residents have chosen to ignore the sign for one of the bathrooms. "We discussed it as a hall, and we are comfortable with it [being co-ed]," she said. The other bathrooms in Round Table appear to be used by members of one sex. Such problems do not arise in independent dormitories because the Housing Assignments office designates rooms to each sex depending on the available restroom facilities. Greg Pessin contributed to this story.
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