UNT dorms altering bathrooms for sex-transitioning students

by Melissa Boughton of North Texas Daily

Female students rushing to the restroom in a residence hall may be taken aback when they find that someone left the toilet seat up.

The Residence Hall Association General Assembly passed a plan at its Tuesday night meeting to allow unisex bathrooms in most of the dorms.

The plan will allow the university’s single-seat bathrooms with locks in the residence halls to become unisex, meaning anyone can use them.

The process of implementing the change still requires a vote of approval from the director of housing, Elisabeth Warren, and the director of dining services, Bill McNeace.

Dorms that could be affected are West, Maple, Clark, McConnell, Mozart, Legends, Bruce, Traditions, and Santa Fe. The cafes in Maple and Clark could also see a restroom change.

Residence Hall Association president Hunter Nelson, who got the idea from a conference he attended during the summer, presented the plan to the association.

“I got to take part in a program presentation that dealt with sex-transitioning students in residence halls and what we can do as an organization that promotes community and a safe environment for students to excel,” Nelson said.

Nelson said that he felt it was necessary to bring the information back to UNT and promote it, leading to the unisex bathroom idea.

After doing research, Nelson said he learned the university is five years behind in creating an environment for the gay lesbian bi-sexual transgender community.

“We also had other universities that were, in 2004, moving toward gender neutral restrooms, so it’s definitely a step that we needed to take to catch up with the rest of the nation,” Nelson said.

Five executive officers from each hall come together to make decisions regarding housing issues at the Residence Hall Association General Assembly meetings.

Roughly 70 people were in attendance at Tuesday night’s meeting, Nelson said.

The idea received a lot of criticism from a smaller committee before the Residence Hall Association heard it, Nelson said.

Concerns addressed about the unisex bathroom included cleanliness, infections, and sexually transmitted infections from the toilet seats, along with moral stances about the gay lesbian bi-sexual transgender community.

Nelson said that when the idea was presented back to the Residence Hall Association, it did much better.

“It has universal benefits besides the GLBT,” Warren said. “I know, as a woman, if I’m in a meeting with lots of people, there is always a line for the women’s bathroom and then there’s a perfectly good restroom sitting there empty.”

Crumley Hall and Kerr Hall already have a unisex bathroom in the lobby areas. Janea Ward, general business senior, said she frequently uses the unisex restroom in Crumley Hall.

“With this dorm in particular, it’s central. We have a lot of offices this way and we have a lot of male and female activity downstairs, so it works,” the Crumley Hall resident said.

The dorms that undergo the change will not add bathrooms. The designated restrooms will replace their gender specified signs with gender neutral ones.

The actual sign content has yet to be decided on, Nelson said. The options include the sign to say either “unisex,” “family,” or “restroom.”

Rachel Griffin, an interdisciplinary studies junior and resident assistant at Legends Hall, attended the Residence Hall Association meeting and said she doesn’t think students will notice the change at first.

“I don’t think the students really think about it, but I mean, in the end it will be very convenient,” she said. “It will be more of a behind-the-scenes change where students are like ‘Oh, we have more bathrooms to use now. Yay.’”

Nelson said he hopes for the unisex bathrooms to be labeled and usable before next semester.

“Once we give approval, the maintenance staff will order the new signs and bada-bing-bada-boom,” Warren said.