On March 12, in a move that garnered national attention from media outlets including Fox News, America First Legal (AFL) filed complaints regarding Kenyon’s restroom regulations with the U.S. Department of Education and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Two days later, the College amended a previous announcement to state that Ohio Senate Bill 104’s sex-specific regulations apply to all multi-occupancy student restrooms, including those shared with faculty.

SB 104, which went into effect on Feb. 25, prohibits multi-occupancy gender neutral bathrooms on college campuses and mandates that students use bathrooms designated for their sex assigned at birth. In a Feb. 12 statement to the student body, the Kenyon administration informed students that the sex-based usage regulations did not apply to restrooms in academic buildings, as these facilities serve both students and faculty. “They are not considered student restrooms within the meaning of the Ohio law, as they are not, and cannot be, designated for use exclusively by students,” the statement initially read. The current statement on Kenyon’s website, updated on March 14, removed this interpretation.

AFL, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “turning the legal tables on the radical activist left,” claimed that this policy was in violation of both Title IX and SB 104. AFL’s letter to Yost argued that SB 104 is intended to apply to all restrooms accessible by students, while the organization’s letter to the Department of Education stated that Kenyon’s policy increased female students’ risk of harassment and was thus a violation of Title IX.

Following correspondence with Yost, the College announced that the restrictions outlined in SB 104 applied to all campus restrooms used by students, regardless of whether these restrooms are also used by faculty and staff.

According to Vice President General Counsel and Secretary Jacqueline Holmes, this update did not require any physical changes to Kenyon’s 76 multi-occupancy non-residential bathrooms. “All of our signage was already consistent with the Attorney General’s interpretation of the law,” she wrote in an email to the Collegian. “The change was simply to state that the requirement that Kenyon not knowingly permit members of one sex from using restrooms designated for the other sex applies to all multi-occupancy restrooms across campus, and not simply to multi-occupancy restrooms in the dorms.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Celestino Limas emphasized the school’s commitment to legal compliance, saying that the administration changed the policy as soon as Yost clarified the bill’s intended scope. “We always want to make sure we’re in full compliance and partnering with elected officials and state entities,” he said in an interview with the Collegian. “Anyone who makes an interpretation realizes that that interpretation is just that — an interpretation. As long as you can get further clarification on that, then of course, you act upon it.”

AFL’s complaints were the subject of attention from several national news outlets, including Fox News and Yahoo News. In a March 12 Fox News article titled “Ohio college ‘illegally forcing students’ to share bathrooms with opposite sex: watchdog,” comments largely favored AFL’s action. “Democrats don’t care about anything……except the moral and social subversion of America,” one commenter wrote.

Another commenter suggested that the College lose federal funding and face legal penalties from the Department of Justice (DOJ): “Liberals will go to any lengths to make girls vulnerable in private spaces. Defund the college and have the DOJ go after them for civil rights violations.”

Some Kenyon students, however, were more concerned about how developments to the restrictions affect transgender and nonbinary students on campus. “I don’t think [bathroom usage] is really an issue at Kenyon that people are concerned about,” Elisa Skaggs ’26 said in an interview with the Collegian. “What people are more concerned about is the safety of students that are LGBTQ and that face discrimination.”

“[AFL’s] line of reasoning is part of a larger narrative that latches onto a fear of difference to justify state violence against the political enemies of the global elite,” Max Fishman ’26 wrote in an email to the Collegian. “If [being] trans is benign variation or if people are just going about their day and using the bathroom, the narrative doesn’t work.”

Other students considered AFL’s complaints to be a waste of time and resources. “I feel like the whole thing is really crazy,” Natalie Stone ’25 said in an interview with the Collegian. “They have nothing better to do with their time than to target a liberal arts school. These people need a life.”

While the administration stated its commitment to legal compliance, it also acknowledged that recent changes may negatively impact community members. “Transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming students and colleagues are valued members of the Kenyon community, and the College remains committed to fostering an environment where every person has a sense of full belonging,” the March 14 news bulletin announcing the changes to policy read. “Kenyon recognizes that these legislative developments may make realizing that goal more challenging.”

Fishman called for the administration to go beyond its statements by actively including students in future decisions involving campus life. “When the administration discusses retrofitting bathrooms to increase the number of single stalls… [and/or] when the Board of Trustees discusses how much funding to dedicate to that project, students and faculty should have transparent access and even decision-making weight,” Fishman wrote in an email to the Collegian. “I hope to build a sense of trust and community among a larger group of students who care. Trust and community will be the backbone of our power against forces larger than us, but it is sorely lacking at Kenyon beyond our smaller circles.”