MACI COSMORE
Special to The Leader
In February, a petition to place a gender neutral bathroom in Mason Hall made its way around social media. Just last month, a bathroom in the building was officially switched over.
On Feb. 26, President Horvath sent out a statement in a Monday update email concerning the current bathroom situation.
“Recently, I learned that no all-gender restrooms are available in Mason Hall and found this troubling on two levels. First, we need to have all-gender restrooms in all academic buildings, as this is a basic right and need for transgender individuals and any who seek privacy for various reasons. Second, we need to have better planning so that we can be proactive on such issues, with space and facilities needs rising from users in buildings across campus,” she said.
Horvath continued, “Students should not have to petition for this kind of need to reach the attention of those who can do something about it. In making our campus more inclusive, changing spaces is the easiest thing we can do; changing minds and practices related to inclusion is much more challenging.”
Mol Stabell, the sophomore public relations major who sits on the Pride Alliance e-board and created the Change.org petition, said it received around 600 signatures.
In a recent update sent out by Stabell via Change.org on March 21, Stabell said that a gender neutral bathroom was officially placed in the building.
While Stabell’s petition took weeks to gain attention from student around campus, Stabell says that they didn’t do much with the petition.
“It took off on its own basically, I just kind of just helped it along a little bit. I didn’t even send it to any officials or the president or anything. It just kind of got around and then I just kind of got in touch with [President Horvath] afterwards. So really, I didn’t do a whole lot of anything.”
While Stabell continued to share the petition on social media, President Horvath was quick to take action as soon as she heard about it.
Stabell said, “There was a speaker who came and one of the students at that speaker event mentioned it and she got a hold of it that way . . . I hadn’t even sent it to her yet, but then after she sent that email addressing the issue, I then sent an email back to her . . . thanking her and saying it was me.”
Bill Boerner, the chief diversity officer and co-chair of the Chosen Names Policy, said he wasn’t as involved in the process for Mason Hall as he wished to be. In fact, Boerner never even saw the Change.org petition; however, he is a part of the process moving forward.
“I’m actually now involved in the process moving forward because there are . . . actually several buildings that we’re managing right now . . . ultimately our folks in our facilities management area came and kind of included [me] in the loop to make sure I was aware of what was going on. Obviously, President Horvath and I connect on these things on the regular,” he said.
Boerner is working with others to assure buildings around campus have these single-occupancy spaces. He said the campus is behind on receiving these bathrooms in academic facilities because of building codes.
According to FEMA.gov, building codes are, “sets of regulations governing the design, construction, alteration and maintenance of structures. They specify the minimum requirements to adequately safeguard the health, safety and welfare of building occupants.”
To put this into perspective, building codes regulate the amount of toilets, sinks and stalls in bathrooms and the amount of bathrooms in buildings.
“Building codes have not changed at this time to be inclusive of all genders . . . The building codes themselves don’t necessarily dictate that we also need to have an all-gender restroom as well,” Boerner said.
Although building codes don’t require gender neutral bathrooms, Boerner said that it’s the university’s decision to be inclusive for transgender and gender nonconforming students and staff.
On March 5, Horvath’s Monday update email said, “In Mason, an all-gender restroom will open this week. Facilities Planning and Facilities Services will be working to ensure that each of the remaining buildings without all-gender restrooms will have these in place as soon as possible.”
Boerner’s primary goal is that all members of the LGBTQ+ community feel welcome.
“That individuals have a sense of belonging as part of our community [and] that individuals are able to engage with their identity in our community in a seamless way and not feel like it has to be a burden. I hope that as an inclusive community that members of the LGBTQ+ community will feel as though this is a place of welcome,” he said.
Stabell said, “I think it’s a great start and I honestly think it’s a little surprising that President Horvath didn’t know that this was an issue. I think . . . it’s going to help a lot of students in this building everyday . . . She said they’re in the works of putting gender neutral bathrooms in the academic buildings that don’t have them . . . so I think it’s a really good start.”