Thinking about how much water my college age kids go through, I’m wondering if colleges in drought stricken areas put timers on showers or raise the price of laundry or take other measures to reduce water usage by students?
Expect to find low-water-use toilets, shower heads, etc. in the college dorms.
“Shower with a friend?” 
Most of the restrictions on CA campuses are related to landscaping, which is an issue for the college, not for individual students living on campus or in apartments. Some have recycled (“gray”) water systems.
Your kids use a lot of water because, where you live it is probably a way of life. When/if your kids goto school in california, they’ll adopt a California style. Recycle, reuse, reduce. Everyone in California has two trash cans and the recycle on is always overflowing. When I moved to Florida I was shocked that many of my neighbors didn’t even put out a recycle bin.
Your kids won’t go thirsty, but I bet you will notice a difference in shower length and other habits when they come home.
Isn’t it the other way around: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Those who reduce or reuse may not put out that much in the recycle (or trash) bins.
I spent some time in California-a few different times in the past 18 months and saw no signs of a draught. None. I did not think that was a good thing since conserving was less likely, it seemed to me.
As a California resident, there are many brown lawns in my neighborhood. We have restricted landscape watering to twice a week. Several cities have been fined for not complying with the restrictions. Husband and I installed 200 gallon water tanks in the back to collect rain water run off to keep are landscaping alive. Just spent $$$ last summer redoing backyard. You will also see many homes with low water landscaping or complete removal of lawns. Dept of Water and Power was offering rebates to home owners that replaced their lawns. Saving water is a real thing in Southern California and it should be.
As a college student, it should not have much impact but it should be mandatory that everyone is aware of the situation. I like @bluebayou’s suggestion and shower with a friend. Saving water is really only common sense.
We’re in Seattle so very accustomed to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Just not so much with water. We did an east coast college tour five years ago with S and whole family noticed lack of recycling and composting (except Ithaca!). Seemed better last year with D, but we were looking at LACs, so different. D actually didn’t apply to CA schools (too much potential sun!). I was just curious as to how the colleges encourage conservation. I expect they do make it part of the culture, but wonder if they do it actively or count on the kids to evolve with no specific incentives.
Note that part of the incentive to put stuff in the recycle bin is that garbage collection rates are often determined by the size of the trash bin, while everyone gets a big recycle bin and big compostable bin with no higher charge.
For conserving water, there is the water bill to pay if you waste water.
But not for college students who live on campus, right? Does total COA reflect water costs in CA? (Probably hard to determine…)
True, no financial incentive for students to conserve in the college dorm. The college who is paying the bill will probably put in water conserving toilets and showers, though.
In my community, the trash and recycle bins were the same size, and you could pick a smaller version or a bigger one, with a higher price for the bigger containers. Everything had to fit IN the bins. We did fine with our small ones. We also took bottles and cans back for the deposit or gave them to the children next door to contribute to the collection at school.
There were lists in the newspapers on what was recyclable in each community. Razors, pens, cereal box liners, boxes, types of paper, food containers. Almost everything. It was easy. It became habit to just recycle rather than trash it. My daughter had three bins at her dorm in the trash room (not California). Made it easy.
Compost too? Or separated glass/aluminum and paper? (D is pretty indoctrinated about compost at this point! )
My kids both graduated from a private U in CA. Neither mentioned anything about conserving water. D is still living in LA and still has not mentioned anything about drought or water conservation. She loves tub baths but is not as fond of showers. I haven’t noticed any difference in their water-use habits since they have lived in LA. When we visited their campus, it was quite lush, but it was in the 2006-2013 time period.
No, I think it was paper, bottles, cans. Hers was a traditional dorm with no cooking in the rooms so not as much food waste.
Is there a part of the country where they DON’T recycle? Seems pretty ubiquitous to me.
I wonder if students in the dorms use less water because they can’t hog the shower for 45 minutes like they seem to when home. Or lack the time at their apartment. Low flow showerheads only conserve water when not on for prolonged periods of time…
Many rural places don’t recycle. My parents have to take their recyclables to a place about a half hour away… and no, they don’t particularly live in the boonies.
Even in my very water-rich state, we have low flow toilets and showers. Women in my dorms didn’t particularly take long showers even though I don’t really think we’ve ever had water restrictions.
Our D2 went from long, self-indulgent showers at home as a HS student to remarkably quick and efficient showers as a college student at an East Coast LAC that places no restrictions on water use. Some of that may be a conservation ethos, but I suspect mostly it’s just a common courtesy thing when showers are shared. No one wants to be known as a shower hog. There’s also a different set of time demands and opportunity costs as a college student. D2 has always preferred to shower at night, after studying is done and before bed. At home, dragging out the shower just meant more time for herself. At college, dragging out the shower would mean less time socializing with friends after the day’s work is done. Because she values socializing with friends more than alone time, long showers carry a higher cost at college. But the habit carries over when she’s home over breaks.