Access to the Outdoors at SUNY Potsdam (2021)

Historically, women and BIPOC communities have faced peculiar barriers to accessing the outdoors. We wondered whether SUNY Potsdam students fit this model. In other words, do race and gender, as represented on our campus, contribute to unequal access to the outdoors? Our hypothesis was that they do. We define access to the outdoors as access to transportation, perceived safety, knowledge of outdoor spaces, and access to equipment. To collect relevant information, we designed an online survey. Eighty-one students responded. We predicted that students’ race and gender would be significant factors limiting outdoor accessibility, specifically that, compared to white students, BIPOC students would face greater difficulties experiencing the outdoors, due to lack of access. Gender was also a significant variable factor: students who identified as female, or as part of the LBGTQ community, experienced greater difficulties compared to students who identified as male and/or CIS.

• Student(s): Alice Menis, Anastasia Ivanova, Alice Haller
• Project Mentor(s): Katherine Cleary
• L&RF 2021 Presentation-Team Outdoors