• Watch Live
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • The Collegian
  • College of Arts & Humanities
  • CMAC.TV
  • Alumni
  • Show Archive
Fresno State Focus
☰ Menu
  • Home
  • Fresno State
  • Central Valley
  • Lighter Side
  • Weather
  • Sports
  • Radio Edition | KFSR
Latest Stories:
  • ★ Veterans Memorial Museum volunteers teach visitors about the past
  • ★ South valley influencer raking in millions of views
  • ★ ChatGPT Takes Over Classrooms
  • ★ Fresno State supports transitioning students despite challanges
  • ★ T.N.R. helps reduce feral cat populations
TODAY IS
June 3, 2025
Brittney Steele Restrooms helping students feel safe photo
The gender-neutral restroom in the Family and Food Science building.
Fresno State
Oct 25, 2018 Brittney Steele -

RESTROOMS HELPING STUDENTS FEEL SAFE

It was not always easy to find a gender-neutral restroom at Fresno State.

“I spent 20 minutes this morning trying to find the bathroom that’s in one of the buildings,” said Asher Morely, a Fresno State student.

Asher depended on the gender-neutral restrooms because that’s where he felt safe. This was true for other students who did not identify with a specific gender.

In 2016, Fresno State started adding the gender-neutral restrooms on campus in order to help all students feel safe and feel like they belonged.

“I think they are really important, like as far as helping the students feel included, creating a safe space for people who may not feel safe in the gendered restrooms,” said Shawna Irissarri, the lead student coordinator for the Cross-Cultural and Gender Center’s Gender programs and services.

The Cross-Cultural and Gender Center had a map on their website that showed where each restroom was located, but it was not completely accurate. Due to lack of communication between departments, the Center was not sure how many of these restrooms were actually on campus. The most common restrooms were in the Henry Madden Library and in the Family Food and Science and Industrial Technology buildings.

One problem that was caused by these restrooms were the lines they created.

“I think it’s nice those options are available, I still feel as though its unfortunate that it’s only one stall so it actually becomes more of a bigger inconvenience,” said Maede Fang, a Fresno State student.

The students suggested building more of the gender-neutral restrooms in order to fix the issue of long lines for the one-stalled restroom.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • More
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X

Like this:

Like Loading...

about us

Fresno State Focus is an award-winning newscast produced by broadcast journalism and multimedia production students in the Department of Media, Communications and Journalism at Fresno State. We will air Wednesdays at 4 p.m. on Comcast 94 and AT&T U-verse 99. Stream anytime on YouTube, Facebook, CMAC.tv, Roku, Apple TV, the CMAC app and right here on fresnostatefocus.com!

Follow Us

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • X
  • YouTube
Copyright 2022
%d