Certainly an interesting decision for UC Davis…
Last month, the University of California, Davis announced that they would be renovating their All Campus Recreation center, which is located in Davis, California, just outside of Sacramento. The rec center functions as the campus “gym” for students and faculty, but is also open to alumni, community memebers, basically anyone else who wants to pay for a membership. The renovations specifically include entering into a $5 million project to give their locker rooms a makeover. As they described themselves, they decided they would introduce new co-ed locker rooms in lieu of the traditional locker rooms separated by gender:
“All Campus Recreation members can use our universal locker rooms, regardless of who they are or how they identify. These spaces are inclusive of members with disabilities and members of all gender identities.”
Translation: men and women at UC Davis will be sharing a locker room space (that has private shower/changing rooms) once the project is completed in the Fall. According to the website, the ARC locker room renovation will begin on Monday, March 10, and is expected to reopen on September 2025. The new locker rooms will include a variety of amenities featuring:
- Individual private cabanas with floor-to-ceiling doors, shower, and changing area
- Individual private changing rooms with floor-to-ceiling doors and seating
- Individual private toilet rooms with floor-to-ceiling doors
- Vanity areas
- Locker rentals and day-use lockers
Here’s a mockup:
They add:
“Your privacy is our top priority, and our locker rooms are designed with this in mind. All toilets, changing rooms, and cabanas are individual, private spaces with floor-to-ceiling locking doors.”
And I certainly don’t think it is hard to understand why people, especially women, are upset about it.
A woman by the name of Beth Bourne, who calls herself a “mom questioning gender ideology,” sent out this post about UC Davis’ decision to move away from traditional locker rooms, and cited that many people (mostly women) on a Reddit thread about the the new universal locker rooms expressed concern with the move:
This is so wrong. Next week @ucdavis will begin a $5M renovation project at the ARC campus recreation center to remove the women’s and men’s sex-segregated locker rooms to create one big “Universal Locker Room” that is “inclusive of members of all gender identities.”
The Reddit… pic.twitter.com/werQE6xcjx
— Beth Bourne (@bourne_beth2345) March 4, 2025
Though the 12 shower and changing rooms could help with privacy, the decision to do away with the regular format of locker rooms (one dedicated to men, one dedicated to women) has stumped some people online. The Reddit thread that Beth Bourne alluded to was full of people questioning UC Davis’ decision to move towards a universal locker room that’s “more inclusive.”
Here are some of the thoughts that were expressed on Reddit, via current students as well as some alumni:
“I’m all for inclusivity and providing people private spaces, but it seems like this is definitely not enough to accommodate the usual ARC traffic. How in the world do they think this is enough space for everyone?”
“I don’t see why they couldn’t have just added a larger gender neutral section. I see a long list of cons and very limited pros.”
“Women already have to worry about the men looking at them when they are working out, and adding men to their locker room is just wrong.”
“They can still upgrade the locker rooms and have all the same private changing rooms… just put a wall right down the middle to separate men and women!”
“They say their main goal is to improve privacy, but is the current locker room not private enough? It’s arguably more private since you have a smaller facility with less people because it’s divided by gender.”
“Did the college ask its female students how they feel about universal bathrooms or locker rooms? Or did they just decide they were going to do it and that was that?”
“‘Incidents within universal bathrooms within colleges were very uncommon” – which means they do happen. Why fix what ain’t broke? If needed, provide two small universal shower rooms for non binary / Trans/ other students.”
“Given these ‘private’ rooms, which seem to be new. What happens when a man or other slips into this ‘private’ room, and now has phyical cover (a private room) to sexually assault a woman / other?”
“RIP locker room talk.”
“It’s going to feel a lot more uncomfortable for me, and I’m sure that other people are also going to feel the same. I change in front of my locker and use moisturizer because that’s where all my stuff is and now I’ll have to be doing that in front of the opposite gender as well.”
“Hope people will wake up at some point and boycott the ever living hell out of an institution that implements these things.”
“It’s tough because I think you’re supposed to kind of pretend you’re fine with it otherwise you’ll be labeled a bigot. And that’s not fun.”
“The ladies will never be the same after a day of bros taking massive shits after mad pumps and creatine bumps.”
“Is this seriously taking place? As an alumni I am disgusted by these actions from the school. What an absolute shame.”
“Are there any mirrors in private spaces? I like to look at myself to see progress, but have previously only felt comfortable doing so in my locker room.”
The social media user that brought attention to UC Davis’ decision also shared that another California university has already established a “universal locker room,” and did so back in 2018:
This isn’t the first “universal locker room” on a California college campus.
Back in 2018, using student funding, @UCBerkeley built the first universal locker room on a college campus for “Any students or other gym members needing more privacy, including those who are… pic.twitter.com/NN7nA4ixAp
— Beth Bourne (@bourne_beth2345) March 4, 2025
Welcome to California…
The post Students & Alumni Sound Off After UC Davis Announces $5 Million “Co-Ed Locker Room” Renovation For Campus Rec Center first appeared on Whiskey Riff.