Photo by Cydney Scott
Recommendation #10 of our Task Force’s Final Report recommends that Campus Planning & Operations (CPO) create additional all-gender bathrooms (AGBs) across BU and increase their accessibility. Our climate survey found that 90% of LGBTQIA+ BU students want to see more AGBs. To better understand where, we conducted an AGB census and a survey that was open to all BU students (see Appendix 4 of our Report for details). Our AGB survey helped us identify around 30 buildings where students would most like to see additional AGBs. The survey also revealed that AGB wayfinding signage is not adequate in buildings where they exist, with 89% of respondents in agreement.
To learn where progress is being made on these fronts, our Task Force met with senior managers in CPO Planning Design & Construction and Strategic Initiatives & Informatics. We learned that in 2019, CPO converted all single-stall bathrooms across the University into AGBs. Currently, BU has 4,412 AGBs across residential and non-residential settings. However, many of these bathrooms are in restricted areas where you must be a resident (this is the case for 3,615/82% of them) or where special access is needed (the number of these is unknown).
The CPO senior managers understood the urgent need for additional AGBs. They shared with us their “All-Gender Bathroom Framework,” where they looked at what was accomplished in 2019 and thought strategically about how to move forward. The CPO senior managers came up with 5 factors for implementation: space availability, cost and funding, process of obtaining code variance (if needed), construction time, uilding occupants/users.
As part of creating this Framework, they also conducted listening sessions with “colleagues,” including Dean of Students (DOS) Office staff. CPO was under the assumption that the DOS Office was documenting student requests for AGBs and relaying them to CPO. However, no such documentation process was found. Thus, the CPO senior managers shared that they are excited to review our survey data and receive direct feedback from students regarding where they would like to see more AGBs.
The CPO senior managers’ goal is to fulfill our recommendation to have at least 1 mobility device-accessible and non-restricted AGB in every building. The CPO senior managers have received the "green light" from President Brown’s SPACE Committee to move forward with creating AGBs in high-priority locations, including 100 Bay State Road (home to Marciano Commons, the ERC, the CCD, & more) 930 Comm Ave (home to SARP & more), and 775 Comm Ave (the GSU). We also learned that AGBs (with showers) are forthcoming on every floor in Warren Towers as part of its wide-scale renovation project in 2024.
CPO will be taking a multi-year, phased approach to increasing the number of AGBs, and we will provide updates regarding progress as we receive them.
The CPO senior managers have also been very receptive toward our recommendations to improve wayfinding and communication about AGBs through increased signage, a more comprehensive map, and educational campaigns about the importance of AGBs.
Our Report recommends that a process be created for students to request the creation of AGBs in specific locations on campus. We will share updates on this when we have them, but in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to us at lgbtqia.bust@gmail.com if there is anything we can do to support you.
In solidarity,
The LGBTQIA+ BU Student Task Force