Dear Wesleyan Administration,
Gender neutral housing is an amazing feature of Wesleyan, and one we hope persists through the current political landscape. We are proud to attend a school on the front lines of gender liberation. A key feature of this housing policy is the gender neutral bathrooms, which allow all students, regardless of gender, to use the same restrooms in residence halls. The abstract positives of this are innumerable. The reality, however, is that many of these bathrooms aren’t designed to function as multi-gender spaces, and leave students exposed and unsafe. This is due to a failure by you, Wesleyan Administrators, to adequately adapt these dorms to service a Co-Ed student body.
You are entirely liable for the recent incidents in the Nicholson residence hall bathrooms. Wesleyan has been Co-Ed for the last 55 years. You have had ample time to redesign bathrooms to be safe for all students.
We are not writing in opposition to multi-gender bathrooms. In fact, we are strongly in favor of them. However, having lived on in dorm halls with multi-use, multi-gender bathrooms for the last two years, it is clear to us that you have not taken the necessary steps for a true Co-Ed transition. Instead, you have asked students of all genders to use a space designed to be single gender. The majority of dormitory bathrooms on campus were created before 1970. When Wesleyan went Co-Ed in 1970, you chose not to build additional bathrooms, and you decided not to renovate existing bathrooms. Last year, our hall’s multi-use, multi-gender bathroom had an open urinal with no surrounding stall. Why had this urinal not been stalled in? It was immediately clear that we were not using a gender neutral bathroom, but a male bathroom that “allowed women”. Gender neutrality is nuanced. It is complicated. It requires planning. It demands privacy. It certainly is not as simple as a men’s bathroom with a “Gender Neutral” sign on the door.
For a university that claims to be on the cutting edge of social justice and gender neutrality, you must also be on the cutting edge of student privacy and safety. These bathrooms are not private, nor are they safe. Shower stall doors and dividers should be floor-to-ceiling. A student should never be able to record, much less reach, another student over the shower wall. The recent situations in Nics should never have occurred. It is because you refuse to remodel these bathrooms to livable multi-gender standards that students are in this dangerous position.
The administration must take responsibility for its negligence and act immediately to ensure the highest standards of privacy and safety in all residence hall bathrooms for students. All showers should have a full, lockable door that reaches from floor to ceiling. All shower dividers should also reach from floor to ceiling. There should be no possibility, intentional or unintentional, of a student viewing another student in the shower. Enough with this half-hearted, lazy attempt at gender neutrality. Enough with male-designed bathrooms that we are all expected to use. If you are going to be gender-neutral, do it right. Commit fully to spaces that allow men, women, and nonbinary students equal and fair use. Guarantee privacy for your students. You know what needs to be done. Why, after 55 years, have you still not done it?
Wesleyan cannot claim that these bathrooms are gender-neutral unless the proper standards are met. Until then, you must acknowledge that you are forcing students into an unsafe situation to save money. The issue lies not in the multi-gender bathroom model, but in the design of these bathrooms. The recent incidents are an exploitation of a structural fault by Wesleyan to invest in a few minimal, common-sense safety features. There are clear paths forward. If you do not act immediately, students and families will know that you truly have no regard for student safety in the dorms.
Sincerely,
Aimee Carrasco ’28, Annie Friedman ’28, and Eleanor Lunsford ’28
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