ESELx: an inclusive school

Were the words of the President of the Superior School of Education of Lisbon (ESELx), Paulo Morais-Alexandre, at the inauguration of an uncharacterized bathhouse, a result of an initiative promoted by the Students 'Association of the School of the Polytechnic of Lisbon, which involved the School's student community.

Jaden Gomes, president of the ESELx Students' Association, explained that the idea went through to ausculate the students ' opinion of the School as to the existence of a neutral bath house. They started by collecting opinions from all the students through a form released on social media, whose results were debated within the bodies of the Student Association. The next step was to take the theme to the General Assembly, which had a higher attendance than usual.

The student says they have obtained very contrasting opinions, even within the association. The balancing solution has gone through giving up the men's bathhouse, considering that more than 80% of ESELx's academic community members are female.

The next step was to meet with the president of ESELx who showed full availability to put in place the idea championed by the students. "The most interesting was to see the different opinions of the students" refers to Jaden, who did not expect such a strong participation. The ESELx equipment synoptic was developed by the team of the Student Association that counted on the support of Susana Torres of the ESELx Communication and Imaging Office.

At the inauguration of the neutral bath house, the ESELx president, Paulo Morais-Alexandre thanked AEESELx for the presentation of the proposal, referring that the most important is to have an inclusive School where everyone feels good. "All of us, students and faculty staff and non-lecturers are here to make this School even more inclusive, where people are happy," the ESELx president said. "What we want is to have a space where it is good to work, study, investigate and live," he stressed Paulo Morais-Alexandre.

Beyond the neutral bath house at the Higher School of Education in Lisbon, also the Higher School of Social Communication has an uncharacterized space that can be used by the entire members of the academic community

Flickr photos from the Inauguração da 1.ª casa de banho neutra na ESELx album.