Queer liaison seeks unisex bathrooms

Ungendered bathrooms are a key factor in keeping some students safe: Andy Sandberg

By AUDREY McKINNON signs from male and female and simply gender norms is at risk in gender-seg-
identifying it as a bathroom. regated environments,” said Sanderg.

SU queer liaison Andy Sandberg Media contact Ian Humphreys said Langara film student Amy Fox is a
hopes to reduce the number of in an email that the school, which has transsexual woman; she was born male
male or female bathrooms at Lan- not heard Sandberg’s proposal yet, is and has had surgery to change gender.
gara, reducing risk for those who following city codes regarding bath- “T’ve been hassled in washrooms and
don’t appear “gender enough” to use rooms. stared at and people have walked out,”
the space comfortably. “The college currently provides sep- the 31-year-old said in an interview
Sandberg has not set a specific time- arate facilities for men and women as over the phone. “When I was at BCIT
line, but is in the process of creating a required by provincial and City of Van- briefly, I got followed out of the wash-

proposal for the school’s board that will couver codes,” he said. “As required by room by someone who wanted to argue
include potential renovation costs and code, all of our unisex washrooms are with me loudly.”

examples from other colleges like the single unit facilities.” According to the Coalition for Queer
University of Victoria, which has about Sandberg said she would also like to Action, gendered bathrooms put trans-
40 desegregated bathrooms. work with the city on the issue and sexuals at risk for verbal and physical
“Unlike any other place on campus, added, “The proposal is definitely not assault.
these are spaces where everybody’s to remove all gendered washroom fa- The San Francisco Human Rights
checking... are you the right gender?” cilities, but merely to expand admit- Commission says many transsexual
said Sandberg. tance to washrooms for everyone to students travel out of their way to avoid
Sandberg said the change would ide- whom the existing facilities are cur- gendered bathrooms, or avoid public
ally start in the B building where there rently inaccessible.” bathrooms altogether, leading to blad-
is only one gendered bathroom per Transsexuals are not declared to the der infections and health problems.
floor. Renovations could include higher college so the number of affected peo- “Tf you have to plan your entire day
doors to add privacy in the stalls, self- ple at Langara is unknown, not to men- and your liquid intake and all of the =
cleaning toilets toreplace urinalsanda tion those affected who are not trans- stuff around access to bathrooms, that AUDREY McKINNON photo
panic button to ensure safety. sexual. severely impacts your life,” said Sand- Andy Sandberg, the LSU queer liaison, is making a pro-
It could also mean changing the “Anyone who doesn’t comply with berg. posal for desegregated bathrooms at Langara.

CLAYTON PATERSON photo
Students rush through Langara’s packed halls. The college reported record-setting enrolment this spring but says numbers are slowing.

Enrolment increases at Langara

Langara saw another they need, but it’s going to be really years,” he said. “We need to find ways
. tough over the next few years.” to make that up.”
record-setting enrolment Gerson said the main issues facing According to the Association of Ca-
this spring but the rate of the college are funding and space. nadian Community Colleges, the trend
. : . “What we really need is more space, _ of rising enrolment figures is evident mg Nfld.: 22%
increase in new students is but once we have that space, we'll need across Canada. 0
less than it was last fall more money to make use of the space,” “Generally enrolment has increased mi P.E.I.: 17%
he said. over the past two years across the AO,
By CLAYTON PATERSON Gerson also said, last year, the col- board with many programs oversub- m Alta.: 15%
lege accommodated 6.5 per cent more scribed, especially in health sciences,” mw Sask. 15%
Ihe trend of rising enrolment at students than the college’s funding pre- said Rosemary Lafreniére, manager of .
Tien: is slowing, but the fall scribed. communication and information re- w Ont. 13%
2011 and spring 2012 semesters Because the tuition rates are signifi- sources at ACCC.

still saw record highs for the college. cantly higher for international stu- According to the association, a large m Nunavut: 12%

According to Martin Gerson, the col- dents, the college is looking to accom- factor in the rising enrolment rates at
lege’s vice-president academic and pro- modate more of them so the costs for colleges has to do with people seeking m Man.: 6%
vost, enrolment numbers are begin- domestic students remain lower. to change careers or to upgrade skills. AO,
ning to level out but the college is still Gerson said this strategy will be- Ultimately, Langara will need to = Que.: 4%
looking to accommodate more stu- come increasingly important as the grow to accommodate future students mw Y1.:3%
dents. college’s budget may decrease in the said Gerson, but he maintained that —

“We have increasingly long wait- coming years. that the college’s main goal is to ensure m BC.:1%
lists,” said Gerson. “It would be lovely “The budget speech from last week the continued comfort and high quality
to find a way to accommodate all stu- seemed to indicate that it is more likely education for all of its current, regis- a ane Teneo
dents so they can get into the classes our funding will go down in subsequent tered students. Relations & Policy, ACCC

)

LSU signs
benefit plan
with provider

Contract between the LSU
and StudentCare renegoti-
ated; precise benefit pack-
age details still to come

By AUGUSTINA COCCARO

with insurance provider Student-

Care, but according to LSU board
member Eli Zbar, there is still work to
be done before the details of student
benefit packages are finalized.

LSU treasurer James Li and service
director Zohra Moshtaq travelled to
Montreal last week to meet with Stu-
dentCare to renegotiate the contract.

They ended their trip by signing a
new 3-to-5 year contract with the insur-
ance provider, but Zbar says there are
still steps to be taken before the new
plan goes into effect in September 2012.

“The contract is distinct from the
coverage plan,” explained Zbar.

Some of the changes that were nego-
tiated during the meeting were chang-
es in the security of student informa-
tion, being able to deal with student
inquiries more efficiently, faster pro-
cessing times for claims and changes
to travel insurance benefits.

The LSU will be presenting the
changes at the board meeting on Mon-
day, March 5 and plan to present the
final draft to students in a referendum
at the end of April.

T" LSU has signed a new contract