DeKALB — Four multi-stall, gender-inclusive bathrooms were added Wednesday on the first floor of Altgeld Hall’s east and west wing — making these the first multi-stall, all-gender bathrooms at NIU.

This past summer, the university developed single-stall, gender-inclusive bathrooms in the Holmes Student Center to serve as prototypes to see how the NIU community would respond to the change, according to a July 18 Northern Star article. Through the efforts of members of the Gender and Sexuality and Resource Center, Chief Diversity officer Vernese Edgehill-Walden and John Heckman, vice president of facilities managament and campus services, the signs were changed in less than a year.

This project took months of planning, said Heckman, who worked closely with Molly Holmes, director of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, on this project to facilitate dialogue and supportive policies for the sign change. Holmes said the ceremony wasn’t official, yet the people present were excited and happy about it.

Homes said her role was to make sure student voices and transgender, non-conforming faculty, staff and students had input regarding what these restrooms would mean to them.

“[The new bathroom addition] allows people to do the most basic of functions in a way that they feel included and safe to be able to choose spaces that represent them,” said Holmes. “It also gives the campus more options in terms of everybody being able to choose the restroom that they feel comfortable and safe using.”

The signs read “anyone can use this restroom regardless of gender identity or expression” and can be seen with a person with a dress, a person in pants, a person in split with half dress and pants and a person in a wheelchair.

“I was able to inform them of the best practices of these type of restrooms across the country [and] in ways that campuses rule them out,” Holmes said.

The two former men’s restrooms have urinal systems that have temporarily been put out-of-commission but will be taken out in the long-term.

Matthew Lonski, Gender and Sexuality Resource Center graduate assistant, said he leads a student task-force of more than ten students, called Trans-action, that is working on mapping out bathrooms on-campus to better understand what signs could be changed to all-gender in the future.

“I think more restrooms are being looked into, and the plan is not to stop with Altgeld,” Holmes said

There is more planning in the works paired with building an awareness of what these restrooms are and what they do add to inclusive options for everyone on campus, Holmes said.