By Jennifer Marbley

Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Project Advances

University of Nevada, Reno undergraduate students came to speak during the Associated Students of the University of Nevada meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, where members of the audience are allowed to contribute to the meeting, over a dozen students spoke in regards to Senate resolution 82-111 on gender-neutral bathrooms.

Undergraduate students came to support a resolution to convert six on-campus restrooms from family restrooms to gender-inclusive bathrooms. Gender inclusive means that a person of any gender would be about to use the bathroom, regardless of what gender they identify with. All of the restrooms would contain a single stall.

The resolution has the potential to benefit transgender students, according to Sen. Raina Benford of the Division of Health Sciences, who have reportedly experienced harassment while using bathrooms designated for a specific sex. The resolution would also help disabled individuals if a person of the opposite sex needed to assist them in the restroom. Benford aims to have the resolution expanded so that all buildings on campus will have a gender-inclusive restroom.

Senior Theo Meek was one of the several students to voice his support for the resolution. However, Meek told the ASUN senators that he was frustrated with the lack of communication they had given their constituents. He said that senators are elected to represent the voice of the student body, and he did not feel represented. Meek told the ASUN senators that they did a poor job reaching out to the community of college students about their opinion on the resolution.

ASUN senators noted that all resolutions, ASUN meeting agendas and summaries of the meetings can be accessed online for any interested student at www.nevadaasun.com.

This resolution for gender inclusive bathrooms was passed with a unanimous vote with one abstention from Sen. Thomas Green from the College of Education.

WebCampus survey to be launched

Ed Huckman, director of teaching and learning technologies, came to the ASUN Senate meeting to share new updates that WebCampus will undergo during Wintermester. Huckman’s team is conducting research and collecting data from faculty members to discover new ways to improve the current website.

The TLT team is also looking for input from students and will be releasing a survey to University of Nevada, Reno undergraduate students within the next two weeks. That data will help administration make more informed decisions for further updates. The changes will take effect in Spring 2015.

Jennifer Marbley can be reached at jmarbley@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @MissMarbley.