Shakil Mirza | Contributor
Featured image: Basic bathroom cleanliness has been a contested topic at York’s Keele campus. | Courtesy of Trevor Coultart (Flickr)
York students are shitting on the university for the crappy experiences they face in campus toilets.
One user by the name fidgeeta posted an entry titled “Scott Library trauma” on the r/YorkU subreddit, describing her experience as “volatile.”
“In a fit of desperation to use the toiletry unit in the girl’s washroom at Scott, I checked every stall to find the ‘cleanest one’,” read the post. “However, when I arrived at the last stall because every other stall was completely atrocious, I saw something absolutely un-seeable.”
The culprit was a mound of excrement on top of the toilet.
u/fidgeeta did not reply for comment, however she is not the only one engaged in critical conversations about the state of York’s washrooms.
A Facebook group titled Bathrooms at YorkU, used for locating the cleanest washrooms at York, has over 400 members.
York spokesperson Barbara Joy says custodial services work 24 hours a day in three shifts. Most monitoring occurs between 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
Students can submit requests for service via a self-service portal. “The customer service team receives verbal and electronic requests from the community and initiates the work order or service request,” says Joy.
Meanwhile, Work Control Centre staff use two-way radios and beepers to promptly address emergency repairs and maintenance.
“The issue, however, is during high-traffic hours when the washrooms are extremely congested and the availability of the cleanliness staff is not adjusted for the increased traffic,” says Mazhar Iqbal, second-year iBBA student.
Knowing that a certain washroom isn’t kept clean, students will head to newer and cleaner ones, and in turn, soil them as well, he adds.
“I saw a very disgusting bathroom. Garbage was all over the floor, including toilet paper and feminine hygiene products. The worst part was one of the toilets was disgustingly messy and there was an actual piece of feces on the toilet seat,” says a second-year anthropology student who wishes to remain anonymous.
Campus Services and Business Operations’ custodial services is responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and attractiveness of all interior areas of the campus’ academic and administrative buildings, according to Joy.
