Campus & Community

Voting Open for Final Restroom Signage Options

Thursday, May 4, 2017, By Shannon Andre

The Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction, LGBT Resource Center and Office of Residence Life, along with other campus restroom signage committee members, have shared the final design considerations for single-occupancy restroom signage. Throughout the past year, the committee has led the effort to determine signage to accompany the growing number of gender-inclusive, accessible, single-occupancy restrooms across campus.

The effort stems from campus community members’ advocacy and the University’s commitment to advancing an open, inclusive environment. The restrooms provide private, safe and comfortable facilities, similar to what people have at home, and better support and meet the needs of trans communities and campus community members with young children.

The community’s engagement and input has guided the process throughout. Campus engagement sessions in the fall with students, faculty and staff helped to generate initial ideas for the designs. Following the campus engagement sessions, focus groups occurred in February where community feedback was gathered on the initial concepts.

Pentagram—an independent design consultancy hired by the University to evaluate campus signage—applied the community’s feedback to create these final designs. Each design offers symbols that reflect the facilities available within each space and the accessibility of those spaces, which was identified as a priority during community and committee discussions.

To date, there are over 700 single-occupancy restrooms on campus, with over 600 located in residence and dining areas. The University currently has 31 facilities in Main Campus academic and administrative buildings. Plans are in place to begin construction on three additional single-occupancy restrooms over the summer.

Students, faculty and staff can vote and provide feedback online now through May 15 for their preferred design. Once votes are tallied, the University will move forward in the final stages of producing and posting the new restroom signage.