Bathrooms are an essential part of living for anyone on campus, but some people have problems with all-gender bathrooms.
The biggest issue for junior Paige LeBlanc is the lack of general knowledge about where the all-gender bathrooms are on campus.
“Their centeredness on campus, their ease of access, and the general knowledge about where they are is not super prevalent,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc is the president of the Trans Student Union, or TSU, on campus. LeBlanc mainly wants the university to focus on spreading knowledge about the all-gender bathrooms on campus.
“There is no way to go on the school’s website and find it on them,” LeBlanc said. “There’s no way to search gender-neutral restrooms on the interactive map on the school’s website.”
The interactive map is found on the Southern Appalachian Digital Collections website. LeBlanc feels like the all-gender bathrooms need to be labeled on the map as they are “an essential element of accessibility for trans and gender diverse students.”
According to a statement by Julia Duvall, the school is working on creating a list of all-gender bathrooms on campus. LeBlanc is also working on a list.
“I know some individuals have been working on compiling a list of all the accessible gender-neutral facilities around campus, and right now we do have a rough list that we’re working on thanks to those individuals,” LeBlanc said.
The general knowledge is not the only problem that LeBlanc has been trying to get WCU to address. LeBlanc also believes that all-gender bathrooms should be more widely available to the public.
“I would say that there could be more on campus, and that there should be more on campus,” LeBlanc said.
Currently, all-gender bathrooms are in newer buildings such as the Rocks residence halls and Apodaca, but older buildings like Reid and the Campus Recreation Center don’t have any. LeBlanc has an idea for those buildings that will create more availability.
“I understand it’s difficult to implement them into these older buildings,” LeBlanc said. “However, the idea of retrograding some of the current bathrooms into gender-neutral facilities should be considered more seriously.”
Although there are ways that WCU’s campus could help create more availability and access to all-gender bathrooms, they have already taken multiple steps towards helping students.
“The most recent building on campus features gender-neutral facilities in Apodaca, which is a great start,” LeBlanc said.
