Class

Article

College

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department

English Department

Faculty Mentor

Cree Taylor

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

An ongoing problem all over the country are universities and the lack of gender-neutral spaces. Students all over are asking for safe and welcoming spaces so they do not have to fear for their safety while on campus. Over the last 10 years, universities have started to adapt their already built spaces to accommodate the needs of their students and faculty by making them gender neutral. I started to research what universities in the country are going above and beyond to make sure their students are safe in contrast to the not-so-great campuses that choose to ignore their students needs. My research was mainly centered around a well-known website that gives detailed descriptions of campuses across the country and how they are LGBTQ+ friendly. The other sources I focused heavily on was articles from Ithaca College, because it’s one of the best colleges in the country for LGBTQ+ inclusivity. Analysis of my research showed that it’s becoming more common for colleges to slowly integrate gender neutral spaces onto their campuses. This is however, showing to be an ongoing struggle for religious based schools. The results from the research are showing that when gender-neutral and LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces are made accessible to students and faculty, they have a more positive overall experience with their time on campus and students in the community are more likely to attend a certain university when these spaces are available.

Location

Logan, UT

Start Date

4-8-2022 12:00 AM

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS
 
Apr 8th, 12:00 AM

The Need for Gender Neutral Spaces

Logan, UT

An ongoing problem all over the country are universities and the lack of gender-neutral spaces. Students all over are asking for safe and welcoming spaces so they do not have to fear for their safety while on campus. Over the last 10 years, universities have started to adapt their already built spaces to accommodate the needs of their students and faculty by making them gender neutral. I started to research what universities in the country are going above and beyond to make sure their students are safe in contrast to the not-so-great campuses that choose to ignore their students needs. My research was mainly centered around a well-known website that gives detailed descriptions of campuses across the country and how they are LGBTQ+ friendly. The other sources I focused heavily on was articles from Ithaca College, because it’s one of the best colleges in the country for LGBTQ+ inclusivity. Analysis of my research showed that it’s becoming more common for colleges to slowly integrate gender neutral spaces onto their campuses. This is however, showing to be an ongoing struggle for religious based schools. The results from the research are showing that when gender-neutral and LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces are made accessible to students and faculty, they have a more positive overall experience with their time on campus and students in the community are more likely to attend a certain university when these spaces are available.