A Transgender Task Team will be launched in April to investigate the experiences of transgender individuals at Stellenbosch University (SU).
This was according to Ayesha Abou-Zeid, head of the Student Representative Council’s (SRC) Womxn and Queer Empowerment (WAQE) portfolio, who will be putting the team together. The task team will conduct its investigations independently, make policy recommendations to the rectorate for improving inclusivity, and educate the student body on transgender issues, said Abou-Zeid.
“We want to open the door into looking at alternative policies. What are the best current practices from universities around the world?” said Abou-Zeid.
An inclusive bathroom, accessible to all genders and those with disabilities, in Stellenbosch University’s Old Main Building. PHOTO: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi
The university is more responsive to “research and proper policy” than individual complaints, according to Abou-Zeid. This led to the formation of the formal task team, she added.
The task team will be investigating the experiences of gender non-conforming and transgender students, according to Viwe Kobokana, the transformation officer of the SRC.
“I hate that we end up grouping everyone together. I think that each identity has a significant issue and I think that that is part of why we need to spread more education on these kinds of things,” said Kobokana.
A student entering a bathroom for all genders and persons with disabilities located in Stellenbosch University’s Old Main Building. PHOTO: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi
Transgender visibility on campus
Most people on campus were not aware of the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which was celebrated on 31 March, according to Chulumanco Nopote, chairperson of the QueerUS student society.
“People didn’t know it happened. Most of the cishet [cisgender and heterosexual] people I associate with didn’t know it happened. The majority of campus didn’t know,” said Nopote.
The interior of the bathroom for all genders and persons with disabilities in Stellenbosch University’s Old Main Building. PHOTO: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi
Gender-neutral bathrooms at SU
The Trans Task Team aims to investigate, among other things, the prominence and accessibility of gender-neutral bathrooms on SU’s campus, according to Kobokana.
Part of this process will involve debasing concerns around the safety of these bathrooms, according to Abou-Zeid. The team seeks to “explain to people that there’s nothing except bigotry standing in the way of progress”, said Abou-Zeid.
According to one transgender student, who elected to remain anonymous for reasons of privacy, the only gender-neutral bathroom they have seen on campus is in the law faculty’s Old Main Building. The bathroom is accessible to people with disabilities and gender non-conforming students, according to the student.
“It’s not much effort…it’s just taking away from people with disabilities and clumping us together,” said the student.
All new buildings on SU campus will have at least one gender-inclusive or gender-neutral bathroom facility included in their design, said Martin Viljoen, spokesperson of SU, in email correspondence with MatieMedia. “The new Jan Mouton Learning Centre has gender-inclusive bathrooms on the second floor, for example,” said Viljoen.
“With regard to SU accommodation, the LLL houses/community [Listen, live & learn senior accommodation], Huis Russel Botman House and some of the bathrooms in Helshoogte, Huis Visser and Huis Marais are all designed to be gender neutral,” added Viljoen.
A gender-neutral bathroom in the Jan Mouton Learning Centre at Stellenbosch University. PHOTO: Giuseppe Rajkumar Guerandi