UBC residence, in its traditional sense, is an overtly gendered space.
When Totem Park Residence was first built in 1964, there were only four houses: two “men’s towers” and two “women’s towers.” Now, the first-year residence has 10 houses — all of which are mix-gendered and alternate between mixed and single-gender floors, highlighting small steps to break out of the cisgender binary it was created in.
But for Two-Spirit, Trans and gender-diverse students, the binary of residence structure is often still prevalent, from a lack of gender-neutral bathrooms to inconsistencies with the use of legal names. In this gap, residence Pride collectives — now at Totem Park, Place Vanier and Orchard Commons — are stepping in to foster a more inclusive space for first-year students.
Britt Runeckles, a fourth-year English literature and creative writing student and upper-year co-chair of the Totem Park Pride Collective, explained that the collective has only existed in this structure for two years. But she hopes it will continue in the years to come.
Runeckles added that a Pride collective did not exist when she was in her first year, so it’s been important for her to see the impacts it has on first-year students.
“I've been involved in [the collective] for the past two years. It’s been really amazing to see that community grow and see how important it is to students,” she said.
The accessibility of the groups to first-year students is also important.
First-year forestry student Martin Henry said the larger UBC Pride organizations can sometimes feel “overwhelming,” so being able to find a community of students to relate to in residence was critical.
“Within the first few weeks in September starting school, I tried going to the UBC Pride meetings and it was just kind of overwhelming because it was really official,” said Henry. “So the Totem Park Pride Collective is sort of a bridge between something more relaxed and communal and then something really official and serious.”
Making space
Besides community building, the Totem Park Pride Collective has also been involved in advocating to the UBC Equity & Inclusion Office (EIO) for changes to make residence more welcoming.
Dr. Hélène Frohard-Dourlent, an educational strategist with the Student Diversity Initiative (SDI) at EIO, said the office works as a resource for Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS) to help answer questions and make suggestions about how to make residence more welcoming for students.
According to Henry, in discussions with EIO, “one thing that always came up was bathrooms.”
“There’s just been some really funny incidents where it’s uncomfortable then, but then afterwards you laugh about it. But then it’s unfortunate [it happened] in the first place,” he said.
In particular, Henry and Runeckles described the confusing signage for the gender-neutral washroom installed in Totem’s c̓əsnaʔəm house, where one side has a male symbol and a half male/half female symbol while the other side has a female symbol with a half male/half female symbol.
“That was just a really weird experience because … they tried to do something to make the spaces inclusive because the stalls are floor to ceiling— they are designed to be gender-neutral. But then they put a wall between two of them; they’re clearly suggesting something there,” Henry said.
“They asked you to pick while saying you don’t identify as either you can pick either side. Like, it’s not inclusive and they think that’s being inclusive,” added Runeckles.
Frohard-Dourlent said while she did not recall the specific incident coming across her desk, there have been instances with inconsistent signage, which UBC is working to standardize.
But due to the decentralized structure of the university, changes take time.
“The problem is UBC is often very decentralised and a very large institution. So unfortunately just like by the nature of the size of the campus we don’t always know when something happens,” she explained.
The students also pointed out times the use of legal names versus preferred names were inconsistent.
“I was in the cafeteria they swiped my card and my legal name showed up, which is weird because my preferred name was on my card so I don’t know how it got mixed up,” said Henry. “And there’s other weird places ... where the UBC systems aren’t talking to each other.”
"We’ve fixed a few of them, which is great, but it was just really jarring ... coming to university for the first time, you know, never this name before — just having all of these surprises was just kind of stressful,” added Henry.
According to Frohard-Dourlent, the use of legal names and preferred names often comes down to communication and education with staff. She explained that EIO has worked to ensure faculty members can only access preferred names on class lists to make role calls more welcoming for students, but some staff still have access to both names.
“The vast majority of the time when I’ve talked to staff about a gap because a student has brought it to our attention. Usually, people are really responsive ... They want to be able to use the right name,” she said.
Frohard-Dourlent said they encourage students to reach out to EIO if they notice something that could be improved upon.
“As a student, it’s really hard when someone uses the wrong name to confront them because you don’t know what their motivation might be,” she said.
“You don’t know if you’re going to encounter someone who’s supportive, someone who isn’t supportive, somebody who understands, or someone who doesn’t understand. And, so I think that’s a real challenge for students right now, it just leaves you with a lot of self-advocacy.”
Moving forward
The university is also working outside of legal names and washrooms with rooming structures to make students feel more comfortable with their living situations.
Fourth-year engineering physics student Miles Justice explained that his residence set-up was different from most first-years, as he was placed in a four-bedroom unit in Ritsumeikan House shared by students who identified as genderfluid. We switch between he/him and they/them for Miles throughout this section. Should we make it consistent?
Justice explained that when they signed up for residence, he checked the male gender marker — one of only two gender choices available on UBC’s over-20-years-old Student Information System — but on their form they were able to add in a comment that he was Trans.
He said he was then expecting to be placed in a male-designated room.
“Two out of the three people released their names and on Facebook; they both used she/her pronouns and I was like, ‘This is going to be really awkward when I get there,’” Justice said.
“So I called [SHHS] and they said … we put you in a genderfluid room.”
This ended up working well for him.
“It was definitely way better than if I had been rooming with cis people, probably.”
On a larger scale, EIO and SDI are working on cross-campus strategies to make UBC more inclusive for Trans, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse students.
According to the 2019 UBC Undergraduate Experience Survey, “Non-binary and transgender students were 28 [per cent] less likely to agree or strongly agree that students of their gender are respected on this campus.”
In June 2019, the university received backlash from the community for allowing an external booking by anti-SOGI speaker Jenn Smith. Following the event, UBC was barred from participating in the Vancouver Pride Parade.
In response, EIO is launching a task force made up of gender-diverse students, staff and faculty to advise UBC on areas they can improve upon.
But even with more formal efforts by the university, it’s the students that continue to do most of the work on the ground in residences to make the spaces more inclusive.
“It just makes you feel like you’re not so much of a minority,” Henry said.
“Sometimes it’s just been kind of awkward because ... the [residence advisors] might not necessarily know how to approach us about certain things, and other students might not know; they’ve never had to navigate pronoun questions before. It’s just really nice like getting to work with people who just sort of get the experience and are willing to just promote it.”
Britt Runeckles is a contributor to The Ubyssey’s news and features sections.
Should we include a disclaimer for Miles??
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