Friday 09-02-2024 - 20:53

 

We are aware of a series of tweets and replies by Lancaster University academic Dr Katie Alcock concerning gender neutral toilets at The Sugarhouse.

 

 

We absolutely reject the comments she has made about Sugarhouse, which have no basis in fact whatsoever and we find it abhorrent that she has chosen to cite a sexual offence committed more than 10 years ago to make her point. Dr Alcock also seems to think that all our toilets are gender neutral, which is not the case. We have two sets of female toilets, two sets of male toilets, a gender neutral toilet and an accessible toilet. In all there are 56 toilets in the building, just five of which are gender neutral.

 

At The Sugarhouse, our hardworking staff and security personnel go to extraordinary lengths every time we open to make this a safe place for everyone attending. The suggestion that things have not changed since 2013 is deeply insulting to the many students and staff who work so hard week-in, week-out to make Sugar the fun, secure, supportive space that it is for all those who go there for a great night out.

 

If Dr Alcock had taken the trouble to ask us about security at Sugarhouse we could have told her that we have 14-18 security staff on every night at Sugarhouse, there are 3-4 managers on duty and 32-36 student staff on each shift and there is a member of the Students Union' senior leadership team on call every night. We do specific welfare training for all staff, there is a welfare tent at Sugarhouse every night and two welfare security staff do toilet checks every 15 minutes and the checks are logged by scanning a QR code, so we can verify they have been done.

 

As an organisation we are always open to fair criticism and suggestions how we can improve - but criticism needs to be based on fact and we suggest Dr Alcock does her research and finds out the facts before taking to Twitter again.

 

The student officer team said: "The Full Time Officers are appalled at the statements that have been made and unwaveringly believe that all students deserve to have dignity in every setting including in their student nightclub(which we are all incredibly proud of) Our Trans and Non-Binary community have our full support and our gender neutral toilets ensure that a night out at Sugar is a safe and comfortable experience for them."

 

LUSU Chief Executive, Misbah Ashraf, said: "It is completely unacceptable for a Lancaster academic to make such ill-founded statements as this. If she had contacted me I could have listed the many, many things we do to make Sugarhouse safe. Dr Alcock should delete her tweets and apologise to the students and staff who work so hard at Sugar every night."