Student representatives at TU Dublin are saying that the university is failing to address the needs of transgender students on their campuses when it comes to implementing up-to-date, inclusive gender-neutral bathroom signage.

While many TU Dublin campuses offer all gender bathrooms, some students consider much of the imagery used on the signage to be outdated and offensive.

While there is not a clear consensus for what symbols should be included on all gender bathrooms, it is widely understood that signage needs to be affirming to all identities. Best practices include using the language “All gender bathroom” or “Gender-inclusive bathroom” and an image depicting a toilet.

The traditional male and female stick figures are not considered inclusive because they do not recognise any gender variations beyond the binary, and figures depicting half of a man or woman can be offensive since they imply that transgender identities are a split between two genders, or half-male, half-female.

Unfortunately, the signage posted on nearly all TU Dublin sites (with the exception of two locations) falls into the outdated category.

The TU Dublin Students’ Union, in conjunction with TU Dublin’s LGBTQ+ Society, has been advocating for inclusive, non-offensive gender-neutral signage in their college bathrooms for the past four years. Despite lobbying toward the Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) Department, updated gender-neutral signage was only ordered for TU Dublin’s ‘flagship’ Grangegorman campus, which the university generally utilises for public events.

President of the TU Dublin Students’ Union, Brian Jordan, calls the failure to implement gender-neutral signage “an embarrassment”. He is demanding that the original order is expanded to include sufficient signage for all five campuses.

Jordan crafted extensive proposal documents and submitted them to various departments and committees, including the Student Experience Committee, the EDI Department, the head of Campus & Facilities and the EDI Sub-Committee of Governing Body.

So far, these requests have reportedly either been ‘endorsed’ verbally with no tangible actions taken or ignored.

Jordan said: “The Director of EDI, within the EDI Sub-Committee of Governing Body, literally agreed the signage on all other campuses was highly offensive, and yet, neither she, nor her colleagues, have exerted their immense power or influence to request that other university personnel rectify this.”

The TU Dublin Students’ Union submitted a proposal which provides examples of gender-neutral bathroom signs that avoid offensive imagery, but the Head of Campus and Estates has said they have no plans to update the signage.

TU Dublin aims to be a progressive campus with its ‘Gender Identity’ Policy, which states: “At TU Dublin we aim to create a supportive and inclusive environment in which all gender identities are welcome and transphobic behaviour and bullying is never tolerated,” but students have pointed that the lack of action in ordering the gender neutral signs conflicts with this statement.

The Students’ Union President told GCN: “The issue surrounding a lack of inclusive signage across each TU Dublin campus is symbolic of everything that is wrong with the University. They boast policies and an ‘inclusive culture’, evidenced in their attempts at improving their abysmal public reputation, and yet entirely fail to achieve the goals set out in said policies at every turn.”

He added that the EDI Department “is offensive to the students it claims to represent” because it refuses to update the signage, allegedly ignores attempts to set up a T-Fund, and lacks a consistent approach to providing for name changes across TU Dublin.