Bathrooms on campus a focus for improvement

Bathrooms on campus a focus for improvement

Jessika Robertson

With a 580-acre campus and more than 28,000 students, Sacramento State has a plethora of restroom locations to choose from. However, not all campus restrooms have been remodeled or renovated recently.

Some of the buildings on campus such as Brighton Hall have curtain coverings instead of a standard stall door.

Junior criminal justice major Amanda Snowden said she found the restrooms in one building to be worse-off than the rest.

“The women’s restroom on the first floor of Eureka Hall has shower curtains instead of stall doors,” Snowden said. “The bathrooms that do have doors don’t have locks.”

Snowden said she is upset by the unsanitary conditions she has encountered in Eureka Hall’s restroom facility as well.

“Eureka has to have one of the worst women’s bathrooms on campus,” Snowden said. “There is never toilet paper or seat covers when I go in there.”

In Alpine Hall, the men’s restroom is on the first floor while the women’s is on the second floor.

The women’s restroom does not have any attachment on the stall to hold belongings such as backpacks or purses.

Daryn Ockey, assistant director of Facility Resources at Sac State said restroom renovations are difficult to carry out.

“Some bathrooms are older and have not been renovated,” Ockey said. “This is simply a function of limited funding.”

Snowden said she wonders why the curtains were put into the restrooms in the first place.

“At the time, some of the restrooms were built or renovated–curtains were the standard,” Ockey said.

Junior theater and communications major Jelisa McField said the buildings, which are often shown to potential students and those participating in orientations, have more sanitary restrooms.

McField said the less-populated buildings seem to have unsanitary restrooms and the least upgraded fixtures such as lighting and mirrors.

“I’ve noticed a pattern with the restrooms on campus,” McField said. “No one cares because the majority is not aware or it’s simply brushed under the rug.”

Junior fire management major Chris DiDuca said the quality of some of the men’s restrooms could be improved.

“Some of the men’s restrooms on campus are not in good shape,” DiDuca said. “The men’s restroom on the first floor of Amador Hall contains profanity carved into one of the mirrors. There is also extremely strong fumes from the cleaning products the custodians use and poor ventilation in there. I felt like I was choking the last time I went in there. I hope we can get an upgrade soon to some of the restrooms on campus.”

Ockey said a program for restroom improvements is currently being put into effect.

“We have started a ‘Zone Manager’ program,” Ockey said. “We will be inspecting all of the restrooms to identify opportunities in order to improve our service to the campus.”

Ockey said each restroom is cleaned everyday by Sac State’s custodial staff, which includes 64 full-time employees.

“We currently stock and quick-clean each restroom twice per day,” Ockey said. “We deep clean the restrooms once per day,” Ockey said. “We increased the stock and quick-clean service to three times per day.”

Ockey did not respond for further comment on the plans for changes to the restrooms.

Jessika Robertson can be reached at [email protected].