1972, SPASH was built, yet after 50 years there is hardly any progress or change to the bathrooms. Students have always been reminded how we need to wash our hands and yet the bathrooms don’t reflect that of a clean and sanitary place.  We need to renovate the SPASH bathrooms in order to maintain a hygienic environment for students and staff.

What Students Have to Say

In an interview with two SPASH students: Nataly Carrillo and Xiong Yang, asking their opinions on the school bathrooms. When asked to describe the bathroom in three words Nataly said, “Could be better.” She thinks the sinks could be upgraded to a larger communal sink instead of the single sinks, especially when, “one out of the three sinks actually work [Second Floor Bathroom].” In a situation similar, I’ve noticed the handles are unnecessarily resistant and abnormally close to the sink walls. Xiong believes the bathroom is gross and unhygienic; he reasons people to be unsanitary and says, “Custodians don’t clean the bathroom as good.”  He not only thinks the second-floor bathrooms are worse then the first-floor but he finds it rather annoying to walk to the bathrooms if his class is farther away since there is only one bathroom with three stalls on the second floor. I can relate to this wholeheartedly especially when your class is in a corner. Your best bet is having to walk down to the first floor if you really need to use the bathrooms. When asked what bathrooms they preferred, they both said the lower south common. This shows how much cleaner and nicer the new bathroom is and how some students would walk all the way to the lower south commons just to use that bathroom. Although not as important, they should add paper towels back as another option for drying hands and expand the second-floor bathrooms. It would also be great if the 25-cent feminine hygiene dispenser were replaced with a basket that would actually hold feminine products which the feminist club provides. 

Do We Need a New Method of Cleaning?

In an interview with Mr. Zoromski, the Head Custodian at SPASH. He explains the process and expectations of cleaning the bathrooms. He states the bathrooms are, “100% cleaned and disinfected.” This includes the toilet, sink,  hand dryer as well as odor. He explains that the bathrooms are cleaned daily or as needed in cases of accidents. However, I‘ve been told by many students that they find bathrooms to be unsanitary, especially the hand dryers. I personally have seen hair and mold-like spots in the hand dryer.  It poses the question, at what time of day do they clean the bathrooms? Is it through constant use that the bathrooms get filthy? Nevertheless, I understand how laborious it can be to clean the bathrooms every day and I admire all the hardworking custodians. 

A Newer Bathroom is a Cleaner Bathroom

Regardless of how we say the bathrooms should be renovated, if we don’t have the funds there won’t be any upgrades. One suggestion would be to allocate funds through state/federal aid every year to meet a target goal. Similarly, fundraising would be a great start to get students’ support and involvement. The outcome in the long run would be beneficial to staff and future students. Fixing a leaking sink or a cracked tile is a good return investment and is an opportunity to fix unsafe components in a bathroom. It improves cleaning productivity if the bathroom already looks and feels nice and there’s a reduced risk of germ spread.