Author: Lizeth Castillo
It has recently come to this student’s attention that there is a particular women’s bathroom in the library that has instituted “hours of operation.” Although the idea of designated potty hours for college students seems both ridiculous and maybe a bit offensive, it really makes you wonder if this is merely an issue of cause and effect. What is it about the trends of student behavior that has made bathroom hours of operation necessary?
Most of us have had those awful bathroom experiences where the condition of the toilets, sinks, etc., has left us seriously considering if some people on this campus skipped the vital “flushing” portion of potty training. It’s no wonder that bathroom maintenance, and proper bathroom etiquette, is still a strongly emphasized portion of many weekly hall spreads. Surely all of us remember our first-year experience and the constant reminder that, “If you puke in the stall, please clean it up. We’re all adults here,” and, of course, walking into the bathroom early Sunday morning to find unpleasant surprises in each stall.
When walking into a typical residence hall bathroom, it might seem peculiar that there are signs and pictures on almost every wall, stall and over every sink with clear instructions about flushing, toilet paper/paper towel use and other kinds of daily maintenance. Yet what’s even more surprising is the number of individuals who choose to ignore their bathroom usage obligations. It’s highly doubtful that this is entertaining to the person who ends up having to clean up after their hallmates or the facilities staff that comes in to clean up after the student body.
In fact, when Rangeview-bound students were first told that the each room’s residents would be in charge of cleaning their own personal bathrooms, it quickly became one of the most complained-about aspects of the hall. Although perspectives on this seem to have changed as students have recognized that it doesn’t take much effort to keep their bathrooms clean, it does speak to something that continues to be an issue in residence life living.
Many argue that lack of proper bathroom etiquette is a big problem in only first-year residence halls-perhaps due in part to the adjustment to sharing a community bathroom or to campus life in general (including the foreknowledge that someone will eventually clean up your mess). However, bathrooms all over campus are unkempt-regardless of location on campus or what kinds of students are most likely to use them. Shockingly, and contrary to popular belief, some of the men’s bathrooms on campus are cleaner than women’s bathrooms.
So with more than one bathroom located in the library that’s open at any given hour, a bathroom with specific hours of operation might not be such a bad idea. Albeit, when you’re in dire need of the closest toilet at 2 a.m. after having been studying in a freezing library for X-amount of hours, it might be a bit of an inconvenience to run up or down a flight of stairs, but odds are it saves facilities an extra hour of cleaning/refreshing yet another bathroom at Oxy.
Lizeth Castillo is a sophomore ECLS major. She can be reached at castillol@oxy.edu.
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