March 2012
Penn State Beaver Roar
Page 3
News Harmony Hall Students complain
Dirty bathrooms gross out residents
“
The bathrooms are the same as last year: disgusting.”
Alnycea Blackwell Staff Writer
aab5314@psu.edu
Janice Anderson is armed with disinfectant bleach, Lysol and window cleaner. Goggles shield her eyes and gloves cover her hands. “I do this on a daily basis,” says Anderson. She sprays some window cleaner and begins to wipe the mirror. “Some days are worse than others.” Anderson is one of the two janitors in Harmony Hall. Her job is to keep it clean. Though responsible for the whole building, there are some areas that seem to have the most trouble with staying clean: the bathrooms. “This is a good day,” Anderson said on a Wednesday morning before spring break. With only toilet paper on the floor and toothpaste-stained sinks, it is a good day indeed. Harmony Hall bathrooms have been known to look a lot worse: food in the sinks, improperly disposed sanitary napkins, trash on the counters, unflushed toilets and bodily fluids on toilet seats. And students say the state of the bathrooms is not a reflection on the cleaning staff. Instead, they say it is a reflection on the residents. “The bathrooms in Harmony hall are very disgusting and it has nothing to do with the janitors,” sophomore Nathalee Beneche said. “It’s the people living in the dorms.” “People don’t really take responsibility for keeping it clean,” junior Kyung Min Kim said. Kyung, who is also a Roar columnist, has lived in Harmony Hall for a year. The problems with the bathrooms have been around for a while. A story in the October 2010 edition of The Roar reported residents complaining about students leaving the bathrooms a mess, with food in sinks and hair in the showers, in much the same way as now. “The bathrooms are the same as last year: disgusting,” sophomore
THE ROAR/Corey Wright
The first floor men’s bathroom sink in Harmony Hall looks more like a trash can.
Gina Richman said. Richman is not alone. Ask any woman in Harmony Hall if the bathrooms are disgusting and chances are she’ll say yes. Ask any
guy, on the other hand, and the answers may vary. The reason, according to custodian John Ward and Housing and Food Services Director Jeremy
Lindner, is simple: the women’s bathrooms are worse. The women’s bathroom often have hair dye and hair strands in sinks, improperly disposed tampons and menstrual
Gina Richman Sophomore
blood left on toilets, they say. Anderson, however, said she believes the men have the worst bathrooms. But even those divided over which bathrooms are the dirtiest agree the people behind the dirty bathrooms are freshmen and sophomores. They are new to living on their own and are used to their parents picking up after them, Lindner said. They are not used to cleaning up their mess, he added. “I think students see my staff as housekeeping,” Lindner said. “We’re pretty much going on as adults. Everyone should know how to clean up after themselves,” said freshman Danielle Joyner. Notes have been left in the bathrooms from students in Harmony Hall begging their peers to clean up after themselves. Though some may think the notes did not help the problem, Lindner and Anderson both think the condition of the bathrooms has improved. And this fall there may be an even bigger improvement. Housing is installing key access cards to room doors and bathrooms. Students on each floor will have access to the bathrooms by their cards. If anyone makes a mess, Housing and Food Services may be able to track down who did it by checking whose card was swiped. Until then, students must find a way to improve the bathrooms themselves, though that may be easier said than done. “I don’t know how it can be improved. We tried to talk to the people. They still throw food in the sinks. They still leave tampons around,” Beneche said. But for Joyner, the solution is easy: “Follow the rules.”