A new State of Nevada law ensures all single-user restrooms in spaces owned or leased by a public entity be made available to a person of any gender identity or expression. Assembly Bill 280, passed during the 81st Legislative Session this summer, modifies sections of the Nevada Revised Statutes to remove gender-based barriers to certain restroom facilities, including many on our own campus.
There are 47 gender-inclusive restrooms currently available to staff and students on the main campus in a variety of locations. The passing of this bill will require conversion of an additional 28 single-user public restrooms from gendered to gender-inclusive. Facilities Services staff is working hard to purchase and install new signs, as well as sanitary napkin dispensers and locking mechanisms where applicable. This effort will make available a grand total of 72 publicly accessible gender-inclusive restrooms for the comfort of our community members.
Facilities Services is going a step further in this initiative, converting an additional 34 single-user restrooms in non-public, controlled access zones. With many single-user restrooms located in secured areas, the University seeks to make gender-inclusive restrooms as convenient as possible for the staff and students working in these facilities. The additional conversion of restrooms at some of our Cooperative Extension sites, Main Station Farm, and the Great Basin Science Sample and Records Library on the DRI campus brings the total number of restrooms for conversion to over 70.
Some restrooms have limited availability, such as those at Mackay Stadium. Others, like two in the E. L. Wiegand Fitness Center, require a fitness center membership to enter.
There are 12 single-user restrooms in our inventory that will not immediately be converted to gender-inclusive spaces. These are located on the Agricultural Education first floor, Leifson Physics ground floor, Sarah H. Fleischmann first floor, Scrugham Engineering second and third floors, Thompson basement, William N. Pennington Medical Education Savitt Medical Library, and the Facilities Services north yard. We found converting these restrooms would violate building codes by creating new, or exacerbating existing, gender inequities in these buildings. For example, Leifson Physics, built to code in 1972, originally had 18 men’s restroom fixtures and just seven women’s fixtures. The recent third floor renovation has greatly improved this fixture ratio, but removing two single-user women’s restrooms would violate current fixture equity codes. In the meantime, we are working closely with the state building official to assess how to thoughtfully shore up issues around fixture count, gender equity and inclusivity in these buildings.
Facilities Services sets campus standards for building design and construction, and mandates all new buildings be designed to include at least one single-user restroom available to any person.
Multi-user gender-inclusive restrooms continue to be explored. Read more about our approach to “everyone-restrooms.”
Visit the Facilities Services website to find gender inclusive restroom locations
