MSU Mankato Students Debate Gender Neutral Locker Rooms

MANKATO, Minn. (WCCO) -- Some students at Minnesota State Univeristy Mankato want the campus to be more inclusive, specifically when it comes to locker rooms.

The group Mavericks Empowering Mavericks wants there to be gender neutral locker rooms. It's an initiative members are pushing as they run for student government.

But not everyone is happy about the idea, specifically their political opponents and some Christian groups.

"Academic access, environment and inclusivity," sophomore Abdul Rahmane Abdul-Aziz said.

Those three principals are the platform Aziz is running on as he vies for Minnesota State's student body president.

"The bigger ideology behind it is that it's a place where somebody feel like they can be who they are," he said.

That mentality is already underway. The university has family bathrooms that will soon bear signage identifying as gender neutral bathrooms.

But Aziz and his party candidates want to take it a step further with gender neutral locker rooms.

"I believe that our campus is a very welcome and a very inclusive campus and essentially doing this would only benefit us," he said.

But not everyone agrees with him.

"I'd love to talk to him about the idea, but it's not something that I think is a pressing issue for our campus today," sophomore Aaron Eberhart said.

Eberhart is running against Aziz and says it's more of a financial issue than social.

"If we need to do any construction that's going to cost thousands upon thousands of dollars," he said. "And who's gonna pay for it? Is it the taxpayers who fund this public university? Or is it the students who are trying to graduate with as little debt as possible?"

Aziz hasn't worked out the logistics of the idea.

But Minnesota State's current student body president say there's already talk of converting two family bathrooms in the rec center into gender neutral locker rooms.

The question now is if students vote for someone who promises to make the idea a reality.

"Personally I don't know what the finances are, but I would love to put forth my finances, my student fees, towards something like that where it makes everyone feel more welcomed," junior Santino Braziel said.

Wichita State University has opened a gender neutral locker room. It is part of their rec center.