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Last week, two restrooms on the first floor of the MUB became gender-neutral, replacing the men's and women's restrooms that were once there. The restrooms are located in the hallway across from WUNH and the offices for SCOPE, MUSO and the DSC.
These gender-neutral restrooms remove the specific designations of male or female. These restrooms are an important part of making transgender students on campus feel more comfortable. This change was brought about by the Student Senate, the Diversity Support Coalition (DSC) and the Alliance.
"A resolution was passed early in the year," said Student Senate Speaker Amy Morris. "The resolution basically asks for there to be one gender-free bathroom in each academic building."
The gender-neutral bathrooms remain the same as before, although some improvements may be made to them, according to Assistant Director of the MUB Dave Zamansky. The improvements are necessary for general maintenance of the restrooms.
The signs outside the restrooms have both the common male and female. These restrooms allow anyone, regardless of biological sex, to use them. Transgender students, who may identify with a sex different than their biological one, no longer have to question which restroom to use.
"This is one of the first big things that DSC, the Alliance and the Student Senate have done to make transgender students feel more comfortable," said Rachel Bloom, executive member of the DSC. The DSC supported the Student Senate resolution that created the gender-neutral restrooms. The DSC office is located across from them on the first floor of the MUB.
The only drawback, Bloom said, was that students who used the restrooms when they were gender-specific are now somewhat confused.
"Someone might be surprised to see a student of the opposite sex in the same bathroom," Bloom said. "Some students might have to double check the sign on the outside of the bathrooms to make sure they aren't making a mistake."
Zamansky is proud that the MUB is the first building on campus to have gender-neutral restrooms.
"This is one more example of how the MUB is about the community of UNH. I always picture the MUB as where people want to hang out, and they aren't going to hang out somewhere where they aren't comfortable," Zamansky said.
Members of the UNH Student Senate spoke to the directors of the MUB about making some restrooms gender-neutral before the resolution was passed earlier this semester.
Gender-neutral restrooms were supposed to be built into the MUB when it was remodeled, but as Zamansky said, "It just never happened."
UNH is not the only school to recently designate gender-neutral restrooms. "USA Today" reported in June that the University of Chicago, Beloit College in Wisconsin and McGill University in Montreal have gender-neutral restrooms in key areas of campus.
"It was more about what our students wanted, not what other schools were doing," Zamansky said.
Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., takes the idea of gender-neutrality one step further. According to Wesleyan's Web site, the school offers gender-blind housing on one floor of a dorm. The gender-blind floor allows students to room with another student regardless of their biological sex, unlike same sex rooms that all freshmen at the university are placed in. The bathrooms on these floors are unisex, much like the bathrooms in the MUB and others that are requested around campus.
Coed rooms are available to students after their freshman year at Wesleyan.
The Wesleyan gender-neutral policy, on the Student Assembly Web site, states that "any student who requests a gender-neutral assignment will receive a roommate who also requested a gender-neutral assignment."
As of now, UNH does not have a gender-neutral policy. The Student Senate resolution and the addition of gender-neutral restrooms in the MUB are the first actions the University has taken to provide gender-neutral facilities on campus.
There is no exact timeline for further placement of gender-neutral restrooms in buildings on campus, but more will be available later in the year.
The MUB will probably continue to have more gender-neutral restrooms, hopefully meeting the desire of the DSC for one on each floor.
In addition to making transgender students feel more comfortable, there were other benefits to these restrooms for the DSC. From April 8 through 10, the Diversity Support Coalition will host the GLBTQQAIF (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Allied, Intersex and Fluid) Conference. Having gender-neutral restrooms will make hosting this conference much easier.
Approximately 700 people from around the country are expected to come to the conference.
"We will pretty much be taking over the MUB for those three days," Bloom said. "Having gender-neutral bathrooms will make hosting this conference much easier for us, and more comfortable for those attending."
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