Twelve dormitory bathrooms - three multi-use and nine single-use - have recently been converted to gender-neutral spaces, and University officials are continuing to consider policy changes that would make all upper-class housing gender-neutral and that would allow "greater choice for first years," said Russell Carey '91 MA'06, interim vice president for campus life and student services.
The converted bathrooms, located in Perkins Hall, Keeney Quadrangle, North Wayland, Goddard, Sears and Diman houses were selected because of their proximity to other male-only or female-only restrooms.
With these conversions, over half of the single-use, lockable bathrooms in dormitories are now gender-neutral, Carey said.
An online survey conducted by the Division of Campus Life and Student Services last spring - with responses from 1,167 students - spurred administrators to designate the bathrooms gender-neutral.
According to the poll's results, 26.9 percent of students strongly agreed and 29.8 percent of students favored designating some bathrooms as gender-neutral where gender-specific bathrooms were also available. 20.6 percent had no opinion, and the remaining 24.3 percent opposed such a change.
The University is currently in the process of mapping out on-campus bathrooms and deciding which can be designated gender-neutral, said Kelly Garrett, coordinator of the LGBTQ Resource Center.
Currently 20 percent of Brown's housing inventory is gender-neutral, including all suites and apartments, said Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential life. There are no co-ed doubles.
Officials are motivated "to provide choice and options so all students feel comfortable and safe in their living environment," Carey said.
The objective would be to increase choices and "decrease the harassment that some students face," Garrett said.
Bova said having gender-neutral options available "is designed to allow students to live in an environment that is most comfortable for them," he said.
Steps have been taken in recent years at Brown towards making more facilities gender-neutral as awareness of transgender issues has increased.
Advocates of gender-neutral facilities are also making waves in Ithaca, N.Y., at Cornell University.
There, the university is considering making some on-campus housing options gender-neutral and increasing the number of gender-neutral restrooms, said senior Vince Hartman, arts and sciences representative to Cornell's Student Assembly and senior class council president. Hartman is one of the students pushing for such a change.
