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The University of California, Davis is facing backlash after it was revealed that the college is replacing its men’s and women’s locker rooms with “universal” all-inclusive locker rooms that will be shared by everyone, regardless of gender. The locker rooms are projected to reopen in September 2025 under the new system and many people aren’t exactly thrilled.
“All Campus Recreation members can use our universal locker rooms, regardless of who they are or how they identify,” the University of California, Davis wrote on its website announcing the plan. “These spaces are inclusive of members with disabilities and members of all gender identities.”
The college expressed its reasoning for his move in a statement that read, “We value inclusive, accessible environments that accommodate the diverse needs of our community.”
Naturally, one of the first questions on many people’s minds upon hearing the news is, what about privacy?
According to the University of California, Davis, “This renovation will transform the locker room facilities into a space that offers more privacy for all members.”
How? The new “universal” locker rooms will have (1) individual private cabanas with floor-to-ceiling doors, shower, and changing area, (2) individual private changing rooms with floor-to-ceiling doors and seating, and (3) individual private toilet rooms with floor-to-ceiling doors.
A floor plan on the university’s website shows that there still will be men’s, women’s and gender-inclusive toilets. Who will be policing that, it doesn’t say. The floor plan also shows the individual showers and changing stations, which will surely not be used for any funny business between the sexes.
“I’d really like to know. Are there ANY women who would go shower and change in a locker room with men? Why even have a locker room? Just put the lockers in the middle of the quad. If everyone is changing in front of everyone what’s the point?” one person wrote on X (Twitter) in reaction to the announcement.
One female student at the University of California, Davis expressed her concerns in a Reddit thread that has gone viral.
“Women already have to worry about men looking at them when they are working out, and adding men to their locker rooms is just wrong,” she wrote. “The same can be said about men who just want to be able to be comfortable in their own bodies, but are on edge because there are women near by who might see them.”
Someone claiming to work in the center where the “universal” locker room will be located wrote that the university “consulted many of the colleges that have these universal bathrooms and found that incidents within universal bathrooms within colleges were very uncommon and asked for general recommendations on how they design the bathrooms,” adding, the school “put in serious effort to make what incidents that could happen, preventable.”