CORRECTION: This article originally appeared alongside a stock photo rather than a photo of the new bathroom signage in Johnny’s. That original photo misrepresented the changes made in Johnny’s and excluded references to family and disabled bathroom access, which the new bathroom is also designed to address. Chimes apologizes for this inaccuracy.

Student senate has worked over the past seven months to install a gender-neutral bathroom in Johnny’s. This bathroom is set to open before the end of the semester or beginning of summer.

On a survey that was sent out by senate at the beginning of the school year, students suggested having gender-neutral bathrooms near more public spaces like Johnny’s.

Calvin Student Senators Colin Rweyemamu, Grace Swanson, Jonnelle Carr and Joshua Wilson took on the project as a team.

While there are 36 family bathrooms already installed around campus, the bathrooms are not marked with a gender-inclusive symbol. Rweyemamu noted that this bathroom opening will create space for gender non-conforming individuals to feel comfortable in the Calvin community.

“It can be difficult after academic hours for people…to find a bathroom they can feel comfortable using,” added Swanson, the team leader. “This new bathroom will especially benefit those who live off campus and are here later at night.”

The Sexuality and Gender Awareness team on campus (SAGA) shared their stories and explained why this project is important. They also spoke about how it would have an impact on both students who identify as gender non-conforming and those who don’t.

SAGA includes LGBTQ and straight students who want to show support for one another and better understand each other. The focus is to create “a more welcoming and educated community,” according to Calvin’s website.

“[SAGA] talked about why they need the bathroom and how to go about the process of getting it properly which was helpful for my team to connect a face with a population,” said Swanson. “It made us more motivated to do it because we could see that there was a solvable problem.”

SAGA helped the team more clearly see the need for a gender-neutral bathroom in non-academic areas besides the dorms such as Johnny’s Cafe.

After more discussion and planning, the committee started to plan the placement and budgeting of the bathroom with John Witte and Sarah Visser.

“It was all a joint effort in terms of administration helping senate to complete the project,” said Rweyemamu.

The team also discussed renovating the employee changing room, across from the two bathrooms in Johnny’s, into the new gender neutral bathroom. The Johnny’s employees agree. New lockers for the employees have now been placed near the bathrooms as an alternate storage space for them which has been factored into senate’s budget.

When asked about how this would impact the Calvin community presently and in the future, Swanson had a positive response:

“Everyone who I’ve talked to about this project have all been supportive and want this for the student body. It wasn’t senate solely pushing for it and it’s a community effort to make Calvin a better place for all of its students.”