SFU community members of all genders mobilized inside a Burnaby campus men’s washroom last Wednesday to advocate for gender-neutral washrooms on campus.

The event, humorously called the “Shit-in,” was a sit-in protest during which students took a stand for inclusivity of transgender students and faculty at SFU.

The group that organized the event, the Gender Inclusive Washroom Committee, argues that the gender binary of public washrooms makes them uncomfortable and unsafe environments for transgender and gender nonconforming people.

The Shit-in lasted from 1 p.m. to about 3:15 p.m. Student advocates demonstrated in the southern hallway of the 3000 level of the AQ outside the washroom, where they sat on chairs with their pants around their ankles, holding signs with messages such as, “Say no to gender policing,” and “Check your potty privilege.”

Several staff and students joined the protest, including gender, sexuality, and women’s studies lecturer and critic-in-residence for Canadian Women in the Literary Arts, Lucas Crawford.

Recent research supports the protesters’ concerns that gender-segregated washrooms are in fact dangerous. A 2013 study produced by the Williams Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles showed that 70 per cent of transgender people surveyed in the Washington, DC area faced harassment or assault, or were even denied entrance to washrooms of their identified gender.

Study author Jody Herman wrote, “The concept of two separate and opposing genders — men and women — is entrenched in our society and reflected in our built environment.” In essence, the socially learned concept of the gender binary is reflected in how our public washrooms are organized.

Signage at the Shit-in conveyed this with a more playful tone, declaring that people have been “potty trained.”

Theron Meyer, a third year gender studies student who helped organize the event, explained, “[The Shit-in is] supposed to raise awareness among students about trans safety and their accessibility when it comes to accessing washrooms. [It is] also [meant] to create a kind of dialogue between university officials and students, a dialogue between students.”

The group is also circulating a petition, addressed to the university administration, to make the change to SFU washrooms.

Meyer expressed their hopes for the event: “What I hope to happen today is just to do our thing and to see some more signatures on the petition.”

SFU’s associate VP student services, Tim Rahilly, issued a statement on behalf of the administration leading up to the event. It reads, “the University has taken steps to provide gender-neutral spaces throughout our three campuses in Burnaby, Vancouver, [and] Surrey.”

Rahilly went on to say that no formal complaint has been made to SFU’s Human Rights and Equity Office regarding gender-neutral washrooms, but the university is working alongside the Simon Fraser Student Society to change the policy to allow preferred names on student IDs.

Meyer told The Peak that the response they had received from the university so far had been “very defensive,” as it states that the school has “already met all these plans and all these changes in terms of trans inclusion.” The university also cited the five single-person gender inclusive washrooms that have already been established in the AQ.

“My response is that it’s not good enough,” Meyer stated.

“I want the university to know that we’re not angry, we’re just dissatisfied. We’re not trying to shame or vilify them, but we want the change.”

Build SFU working group reports on steps forward

Board members were tasked earlier this month to recommend ways to move forward with the Build SFU projects following the Special General Meeting (SGM) on January 19. At the meeting on Wednesday, they presented the results of their discussions.

At-large representative Rebecca Langmead clarified that the recommendations were based on the assumption that the No to Build SFU campaign will be putting a ‘revoke the levy’ question for the Spring referendum.

The group recommended that the board refrain from asking any question related to the debenture (loan) in the Spring referendum. Instead, they emphasized the need to reevaluate the project as it currently stands, as well as consider increasing financial support for students through the Build SFU bursary.

The board moved to task the existing working group to look into financial assistance options as well as to develop potential referendum questions in case they become necessary.

Personal attacks referenced in discussion of Appreciation Gala

VP student life Kayode Fatoba began a discussion with reference to an SFSS Appreciation Gala that he had begun to organize through the events committee. Fatoba stated that at the events committee meeting, business representative Shadnam Khan had moved to postpone the event indefinitely, and asked for an explanation.

At-large representative Rebecca Langmead replied, “The events committee felt as though it was inappropriate for the committee to approve the event as it was our understanding that the event would not be open to all of our membership.”

She then went on the address the nature of the discussion itself. “To add this to the board agenda as a way to make a personal attack on a committee member and a board member is very unprofessional, and I would advise against it,” she said. “This is not the first time personal attacks have been made, and I would ask that those who have been victimised by such personal attacks understand that they have legal options and health and counselling if they need it.”

SFSS president Chardaye Bueckert echoed Langmead’s sentiments. “This is the third straight board meeting where there’s been unnecessary conflict that could be resolved with one-on-one conversations,” she said. “Students are paying hundreds of dollars right now to have this meeting. Let’s not hash out interpersonal stuff at the board table.”

Partial surrender of lease for the MBC office space

Considering that the SFSS plans to eventually move its offices to the proposed Student Union Building (SUB), the society approved the future surrender of a portion of its square footage in the Maggie Benston Centre (MBC) back to the university.

The SFSS would surrender 1,174.86 square metres of space to the university in September, 2017, in return for $3,500,000.

Reflecting the recent uncertainty regarding the Build SFU projects, the paperwork declared that should the SUB project not proceed, the agreement would be nullified.