As an active alumna and new mom, I am frustrated with the lack of a basic family-friendly necessitiy on Lindenwood’s campus: changing tables.

I recently brought my newborn daughter to campus to meet a few of my favorite former professors and staff members. We also attended the Not Safe for Work seminar, Open Mike Night and an installment of the Faculty Reads series. While visiting I have been in multiple areas of campus. Only one building I was in, the Library and Academic Resources Center, had a changing table in the restrooms.

One!

That includes “updated” and main buildings like the Spellmann Center, Harmon Hall and Evans Commons.

I enjoy spending time on campus, and often do. Lindenwood was home to me as an undergraduate. Many of the professors and staff members have become great friends, confidants and mentors.

The campus itself is one of the few places I go when I need to decompress. I love the wildlife, and the familiarity is comforting. It is exasperating to me that I cannot share that familiarity and comfort with the latest addition to my family because of a simple staple for families with small children.

Moreover, it is annoying that I cannot partake in athletic, intellectual or leisurely events on campus because of the same fact. Perhaps the most maddening is several large demographics Lindenwood seeks to entertain are also affected. If the university truly wishes to attract diversity to its events, it needs to start by considering the needs of the diverse populations it wishes to entertain.

In short, it’s not that hard to install a changing table on a wall. Parents will do what needs to be done, but no parent should ever have to change their child on the floor.