After being in nearly all of the student restrooms, I have concluded that all bathrooms on the Godfrey campus of Lewis and Clark Community College are not created equal.
While on my journey of the bathrooms, I noticed a diversity of what is considered upper and lower tier.
Due to this variance, ranking and reviewing restrooms became a necessity. The four categories when rating each restroom are style, technology, sanitation, and location.
Style consists of the decor and atmosphere of the room. Technology is simply whether the bathroom features automatic sinks, hand-dryers, toilets, etc. Sanitation is how clean the bathroom is, and location is how conveniently the bathroom is placed.
Something to point out is that I place no blame for the cleanliness or conditions of the restroom on the janitorial staff. Responsibility for cleaning up after themselves lies with everyone who uses the facilities.
The quality of the bathrooms here on campus are consolidated within the nursing building. These bathrooms are all well kept, and are completely automated.
Automation is important because it keeps bathrooms clean to prevent the spread of germs that come with public use. Their location is also ideal because they are all within view when you exit the main staircase on any floor.
“The bathrooms here are hit or miss. I think the bathrooms in this [Nursing] building are better than the ones in the Baldwin and Caldwell building,” Exercise Science major, Jarine Reif said.
The unfortunate low point of the bathrooms here on campus are the heavily trafficked Baldwin and Caldwell buildings. The bathrooms are dated and showing age with chipped coats of paint, graffiti, and stained toilet seats.
The cleanliness was sub par with used paper towels on most of the floors and the bathrooms stalls were atrocious. There was no automation in any of the restrooms and one female bathroom had a major flaw in design.
The female restroom in between The Bridge office and Reid Cafe has a trash receptacle that has been replaced with another style and moved backward from its original place. This leaves stall goers with the ability to see into the next stall over by pushing the old trash can flap open.
Other restrooms sampled on campus fall on the spectrum between the ones previously mentioned. They aren’t great, but you won’t mistake them for an outhouse.
“They seem fine. It smells often in the Men’s bathroom. They usually seem fairly clean,” Jordon Myers, a Sociology major said.
While any other upgrades would be well received, a possible easy improvement to all restrooms would be the installation of a motion sensing air freshener.
Go to www.facebook.com/thelcbridge us know which bathrooms are your favorite and least favorite on our facebook.
Contact Erick at etwelch@lc.edu
