After over a decade of student advocacy, designs for gender-neutral bathrooms on three floors of Noyce Science Center have been finalized, following prior reporting from The S&B that Facilities Management hoped to begin construction in early 2026.
In an email to The S&B, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management Rick Whitney wrote that bathroom construction is anticipated to begin in June and finish by the start of the fall 2026 semester.
The budget of the project is $987,000.
Gender-neutral restrooms on the first, second and third floor will include both multi-fixture restrooms and single-fixture private restrooms.
Whitney wrote that the construction is expected to only affect the restrooms on the east side of Noyce.
“There will be gender-neutral bathroom access on almost every floor of the building with the exception of the basement, which is an incredible step forward in my opinion, in a way that not only widens access for everyone across campus but also is working to provide better quality and upgraded facilities,” said Morgan Smith `26, Trans at Grinnell (TAG) treasurer.
Smith said the plans for construction were the culmination of almost 16 years of student advocacy.
Both the layout of Noyce and the Iowa building code posed challenges for bathroom construction.
“The plumbing code within Grinnell, as well as Iowa more broadly, is pretty outdated, especially on issues like this,” Smith said. “They couldn’t just stick a new sign on the side of the bathroom.”
In 2024, Smith emailed Whitney about implementing gender-neutral bathrooms in Noyce.
“Why hasn’t this happened and what can we do to make sure that it happens in the future?” Smith said. “He responded back saying that they had done architectural studies and that it was something that they were hoping to have happen soon.”
For the past two years, Smith has served as a student representative on a focus group alongside College administration, facilities management, and an architectural team to provide input on the construction of the bathrooms.
“We’ve talked about everything from deciding which stacks of restrooms might be best to renovate, all the way down to what color tile we should have in there,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of thought put into the details of what these restrooms are going to look like by everyone on the committee.”
Noyce is the only academic building on Grinnell’s campus that does not currently have a gender-neutral bathroom.
“Having gender-neutral bathrooms widens access for trans people but also for people across the campus community,” Smith said. “It provides added protection in the case of things like anti-trans bathroom bills where there’s legislation passed that mandates you’re only allowed to use restrooms that align with your sex designated at birth. Having gender-neutral bathrooms means that folks still have access to a bathroom that isn’t going to put them at a potential safety risk or a risk of emotional distress.”
