When freshman Lauren Ehrmann arrived to Collins Living-Learning Center this semester, a sign hung at the entrance to the coed floor’s community-style restroom.
“This bathroom has been liberated from the gender binary,” the sign read.
Ehrmann, who lives in the Cravens building of Collins, expected this kind of thing — she chose to live in Collins, after all, the residence hall she said she believes is known for being the most queer-friendly. When her floor decided to make their two bathrooms gender-neutral, it didn’t faze her.
But last week, the entirety of Cravens had to reevaluate their bathroom policies, most likely because someone had privately told a staff member they were uncomfortable, Ehrmann said.
The building gathered for an educational meeting on gender-neutral bathrooms Sunday and then divided up by floor to rework their community agreements.
The residents of Ehrmann’s floor decided in their meeting after the educational session to make one bathroom for males only, while keeping the other gender-neutral — but the sign is now gone.
This system of community agreements facilitated by each floor’s resident assistant is the way all residence halls on campus address the issue of offering gender-neutral bathroom options, said Cedric Harris, associate director with residence life for Residential Programs and Services.
RAs are not required to address bathroom neutrality as an option during initial floor meetings. Anyone is free to mention the topic during Welcome Week when the floor establishes its community agreement concerning things such as communal space use and quiet hours.
If no one addresses this possibility, though, the floor’s status quo is kept, which usually means gender-segregated bathrooms.
Harris said in an email if no one has a problem with the current bathroom designation, there’s no need to consider changing anything.
“On the other hand, we do not want staff members to be perceived as if they are forcing a decision to change the bathroom designation,” he added.
George Hatfield lives in a men’s house in Wright Residence Center. He said there’s only one bathroom on the floor, and it’s designated for men. No one from his floor mentioned the possibility of changing the bathroom to be gender-neutral, he said, but their floor did create a policy for female guests.
If a female guest needs to use the bathroom, the resident she is visiting will escort her there, he said.
Moira Kehoe lives in Forest Quadrangle on a coed floor, and she said no one mentioned the possibility of creating gender neutral bathrooms areas on her floor. Forest has community-style bathrooms.
Some recently-renovated residence halls, such as Teter Residence Center, have individual “pod” bathrooms, which eliminate any question surrounding gendered bathrooms, and all residence halls have a gender-neutral bathroom somewhere in the residence center, usually in common areas, said Barry Magee, associate director with residential life for RPS.
Magee said future constructions and renovations will likely have individual bathrooms, including Memorial Hall, which will be converted back into a residence hall as RPS’s next building project. The choice of single-occupancy bathrooms is not just to eliminate the uncertainty that might come with the decision to make a community bathroom gender-neutral, Magee said. A lot of people prefer individual stalls for privacy, too.
“We’ve found most students want those,” Magee said. “It’s not just students who are gender-variant.”
