LAWRENCE, Kansas – Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall, a three-story dormitory at the University of Kansas, has a gender-neutral, communal bathroom on the first floor. But for the 2025-26 school year, that could disappear, along with an entire gender-inclusive community that many LGBTQ+ students say they love.
Students said the changes planned by the university at Grace Pearson are damaging to transgender and nonbinary communities. They voiced their opposition to the new rules during a protest on campus on Wednesday.
Aphid Sylvester, who will graduate from KU this year, has lived at Grace Pearson for four years. He is transgender, and said the changes could devastate the inclusive, tight-knit community at Grace Pearson.
“This hall is my legacy … We have created such a space for people to be themselves and for people to feel safe,” Sylvester said. “This sort of decision also sets a precedent that could have wide-ranging consequences.”
The changes at KU come after state lawmakers have restricted transgender rights in recent years, including banning gender-affirming care for minors and barring transgender women from female-specific places, like bathrooms. It also coincides with new scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and at publicly funded institutions.
Michael Hanzelka is a sophomore at KU. They are trans and live in Grace Pearson, commonly referred to on campus as “GP.”
Hanzelka said underclassmen who are GP residents received an email from KU’s housing authority earlier this month. The email said the dorm would eliminate the gender-neutral bathroom along with gender-inclusive room assignments there, and KU also would enforce rules requiring people to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender that’s listed in their student file.
Students said they must file updated legal documents, such as a birth certificate or driver’s license, with KU to show their new gender if they want to change the gender marker in their university file. Some added that it can be difficult to change those legal documents to reflect their gender identity.
A Kansas law enacted in 2023 requires state driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth. The Associated Press reported the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said it would no longer change birth certificates for transgender Kansans because of the law.
KU’s website defines gender-inclusive room assignments as “a housing option in which two or more students share a multiple-occupancy space, in mutual agreement, regardless of the students’ sex, gender identity, and/or gender expression.”
Students told the Kansas News Service the gender-inclusive option at GP made them feel safe and included. They said it is especially popular among transgender students who wish to share a room and live on a floor that aligns with their gender identity (GP is co-ed but the floors are separated by gender). Without the gender-inclusive rooms, some students said they may have to move.
Hanzelka said they were shocked by KU’s changes. They said they expected to spend their entire college career in the inclusive dorm.
“It was like getting shot with a bullet,” Hanzelka said. “I had a big cry with my roommates.”
Some students have formed a group to protest the housing changes. The group is called GPeeps for GIA.
What the KU emails said
The initial email sent to residents at GP who plan to return to the hall next school year went out Feb. 5. A student forwarded the email to the Kansas News Service.
KU Housing and Residence Life officials said in that email they have the responsibility to ensure housing policies and communities align with university policy and local, state and federal regulations. They said part of these regulations require community-style bathrooms to be designated as “male” or “female” for use.
“In the 2025-2026 academic year, Grace Pearson Hall will be occupied as a co-ed hall with gendered room assignments and gendered community-style bathrooms (floors 1 and 2, female; floor 3, male),” the email said while explaining the university won’t offer gender-inclusive assignments at GP.
The email gave students two options: Request a room at GP on either a “male” or “female” floor, or ask to be considered for a gender-inclusive unit in another residence hall called KK Amini Hall.
“If requests for GIA exceed the available designated space in KK Amini Hall, residents will be offered options in other housing spaces for GIA,” the email said.
Hanzelka said KK Amini Hall spaces are likely already full. He said there are only two rooms (that house four people each) set aside as gender-inclusive rooms.
“Obviously that's not enough to cover everybody who needs a gender-inclusive space,” Hanzelka said. “Other than that, there's residence halls, but those are (more expensive) … a lot of people can't afford to do that.”
In an emailed statement, a KU spokesperson told the Kansas News Service the bathroom change was made to comply with building codes that require separate facilities.
“The university needs to be in compliance with the International Building Code,” the statement said. “KU Housing will continue to support its residents in navigating this change to meet their housing needs.”
The International Building Code cited by the statement says: “Where plumbing fixtures are required, separate facilities shall be provided for each sex.”
But it also lists exemptions, including one that says facilities separated by sex are not required for “dwelling units and sleeping units.”
The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy between the cited code and its exemptions.
Student reactions
Students protested on campus Wednesday, calling for KU leadership to reverse the changes.
Anthony Alvarez participated. Alvarez said he’s lived at GP for three years. He said he and other students worked hard to make it the welcoming, inclusive space it is now for people who are trans, like himself, or nonbinary.
“I know a lot of people are in the position where GP is their home and over the summer they feel as though they’re waiting to come back home,” Alvarez said. “And I’m really upset that that’s not going to be there anymore.”
Alvarez worked as a proctor, which he said is similar to a resident assistant, at GP. He said he applied to serve as a proctor in GP again for the 2025-26 school year, but he was assigned to a different residence hall. He said he asked his bosses about the new assignment.
“They told me that they weren't confident that I would implement the policies that they were going to change at GP,” he said. “At a more personal meeting I had with someone higher in housing, they told me it's because they were worried I was going to be frustrated and because they were changing the policies.”
KU did not respond to a request for comment on Alvarez’s claim.
Alvarez said that during his freshman year, he shared a dorm with another transgender man at GP, but they lived on a floor designated for female residents. He said he’d go up to the third floor to use the men’s restroom. He said his sophomore year, he was able to move to the floor designated for male residents.
“I cannot tell you how much it just makes you feel a little bit more free and accepted to be on the floor with all of the guys and for you not to feel as though you're different,” he said.
Without gender-inclusive room assignments at GP, Alvarez said other trans students will miss out on that experience.
“Obviously KU and college in general is where you find your identity,” he said. “And that was really meaningful for me.”
Alvarez said he’s turning down the offer to work at another residence hall, and he’s moving out of student housing. But he said several other students are staying to try to preserve the community they’ve built.
“Currently, the plan is for people to stay … as we continue to fight. Because this is definitely a political decision,” Alvarez said, referencing several anti-trans executive orders and attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion by the Trump administration.
“But those laws are incredibly fluid. There could be court cases; we could pass something to Congress,” he said. “So a lot of people are staying, just in case we're able to overturn something or the fight within KU is able to go our way.”
Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga reports on health care disparities and access for the Kansas News Service. You can email her at r.shackelford@kcur.org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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