Pod-style restrooms provide a safe space for LGBT students.

By James Hirsch
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For many dormitory residents, the days of communal bathrooms are no more.

The University of Iowa has completed the renovation of all showers and bathrooms in the current residence halls. Instead of communal showers and bathroom stalls, there are now four halls with pod-style bathrooms.

Four UI residence halls — Stanley, Slater, Daum, and Petersen — are now fitted with pod-style, or individual, bathrooms.

While many students may find the privacy of these pod-style bathrooms convenient, freshman Lyle Berg appreciates them for a different reason — he is transgender.

“I don’t have a penis,” Berg said. “I cannot pee in the men’s bathrooms. But I’m not a girl. So there are problems.”

Berg stayed in Burge during Orientation this summer, one of the residence halls that have traditional bathrooms.

Although housing officials offered him his own floor during Orientation so he could be more comfortable, he said he felt that would be a little too much.

“I very heavily considered peeing in the sink,” Berg said. “I didn’t, but … basically I did not leave my dorm, not once until I had to.”

Berg said he avoids going to the bathroom in public because of the challenge it presents to a transgender person — which has resulted in kidney infections and even hospitalizations.

“I don’t pass well enough to go into the men’s restroom by myself, but the women’s restroom — no, so I just hold it, and that is very unhealthy for you,” he said.

Jeffrey Aaberg, director of facilities and operations at University Housing & Dining, wrote in an email that there are no plans to go back and renovate existing bathrooms, but the residence hall currently under construction on Madison Street will include the new pod-style bathrooms.

Sophomore Sean Finn, the president and founder of Trans Alliance, said the pod style bathrooms are a really positive resource for transgender and non-gender-conforming students. He said they allow people of all genders and gender expressions to feel comfortable.

“For a lot of people, it can be just a relief of anxiety that goes along with using public bathrooms and spaces like that,” Finn said.

“People can get looks or beyond just looks — violent acts can take place in bathrooms, and the pod-style bathrooms really allow for people of all genders and all gender expressions to feel comfortable in that space.”

In addition to pod-style bathrooms, there are gender-neutral bathrooms scattered around campus.

Freshman Cameron Shook, who is genderfluid, said the bathrooms are representative of how the UI supports the LGBT community. Shook recalled how nice it was to see a gender-neutral bathroom in the IMU when visiting campus for Orientation this summer.

“[It] might not seem like a big deal, but I never saw one of those that wasn’t under the guise of a family bathroom,” Shook said.

With the help of many other LGBT groups at the UI, the Trans Alliance works on getting family bathrooms and single stall restrooms simply renamed gender neutral.

Leaders in the LGBT community on campus are developing an app they hope to launch this semester that would help students locate genter-neutral restrooms around campus.

Shook said there can be situations in which someone simply must use a gendered bathroom, mentioning the I’ll Go With You social-media campaign, which regards cisgender and transgender people going to the same restroom and other gendered areas together so nobody feels unsafe.

Shook likened the program to training wheels, saying it could simply raise awareness while places are in the process of introducing gender-neutral bathrooms.

“I understand that it’s difficult and expensive to just add gender-neutral bathrooms all over campus,” Shook said. “But in this day and age, where everyone’s figuring it out and stuff, it’s either society changes, or people start accommodating those that need it.”