On Tuesday, March 25, five Resident Assistants (RAs) of Centennial Halls installed a gender-neutral restroom for the duration of the week. The move temporarily replaced the women’s restroom on the first floor of the building until Friday, March 28, at 7 p.m.
The project was led by RAs Emily Vucinovich, Nadia Etchey, Joo Kim, Jared Pritchard and Sarah Ford. The women’s restroom was chosen for the project because it has two stalls, as opposed to the men’s which has one urinal and one stall for privacy concerns. The group addressed concerns over the project by noting that it was only temporary, and they believed it was an effective method to discuss gender issues.
“A lot of people said ‘I’m totally uncomfortable with this. It’s awkward,’” said Vucinovich. “This is what someone who is transgendered or who doesn’t conform to the gender binary has to go through every single time they go to the bathroom. I think it was a good way to push people out of their comfort zones and getting them to, in some way, take a walk in someone else’s shoes who doesn’t conform to that binary.”
Etchey stated that changing the bathroom would be a good method of starting a conversation for all of DU.
“It was just a conversation starter,” said the excited Etchey. “I knew coming into college that I really didn’t know a lot about this. It raises awareness that there isn’t just the male and female aspects to this, and that there’s something else besides what [students] are used to.”
According to Pritchard, the venture was inspired by previous efforts from several members of the Social Justice Living and Learning Community (SJLLC) in Johnson-McFarlane Hall (JMAC) who are still in the process of converting one of two female restrooms into a gender-neutral one. Larcy Brooks, a member of the SJLLC and the JMAC project, praised the Halls RAs for their work.
“It’s really exciting to see this spreading around campus,” said Brooks. “It’s interesting that it’s bubbling up now and that there’s some actual implementation going on right now, this year. It’s cool that some of the more elementary action is happening in Halls, because it’s more difficult to get it in there.”
Halls residents, however, were divided on the measure. Some residents praised the move, while others raised personal concerns against it. Mikki Taylor, a first-year pre-law student and Halls resident, believed the creation of the restroom did far more harm than good.
“I completely disagreed with it,” said Taylor. “The women’s bathroom only was targeted for this. I understand that there are incidents of transgendered people being discriminated against, but it kind of posed an even bigger threat which is women being discriminated and possibly being put into danger. We have women at DU who would be uncomfortable going to the same restroom as a man.”
Sophie Duncan, a first-year Italian and economics student, also disapproved of the restroom change, believing that it was unfair to female Halls residents.
“The guys had two bathrooms, they can have their own and the ‘transgendered’ restroom, and the girls had to share with them, which I thought was ridiculous,” said Duncan. “I don’t feel comfortable going into a bathroom to fix my hair and my makeup in front of a guy because that’s just not comfortable at all.”
Aaron Delgado, a first-year undeclared student, agreed with Duncan, citing concern over changing the women’s restroom instead of the men’s.
“Even though I can understand their rationale trying to take a more liberal route regarding public bathrooms, I find it completely arbitrary that they changed the girl’s bathroom,” said Delgado. “If it were up to me, which it isn’t, I would’ve made both bathrooms gender neutral.”
In contrast, Halls RA and second-year hospitality student Alejandro Garcia, who was not involved in the project, praised the effort. He cited it as a springboard for discussion on gender education.
“It helps make you aware of what privileges you have,” said Garcia. “I thought it was a great program to be more inclusive and give more people an opportunity to be open minded about it. Even if they don’t agree with it, it opens dialogue which I feel is important. Anything that’s worth doing will upset some people. When you think about, people already have gender neutral bathrooms at home.”
Megan Deyarmond, a first-year biology student, echoed Garcia’s statements, believing the move would open discussion on gender issues.
“I didn’t really mind it,” said Deyarmond. “I thought it was a good step towards people being more accepting of different types of people. It didn’t concern me personally, since there are stalls and it’s closed. I think it’s a great way for everyone to have an option.”
Deyarmond further stated that gender- neutral bathrooms throughout DU would be a good idea, yet male and female bathrooms would still need to be on campus as well.
Though the project lasted less than a week, Pritchard said he thought the experiment could benefit students after their time at the university.
“Going beyond just DU, I hope that not only residents in [Halls], but in the DU community will take this beyond DU,” said Pitchard. “I hope they take it into their future lives as well and being more aware of who we coincide with and realizing that there are differences among all of us even though we may come around the same thing.”
