For the place that is all about doing your business, the only business that people want to see is cleanliness.
Public restroom preference on Dixie State University’s campus is ruled by a clean floor and fancy new features. Restrooms at DSU range from old to new, which can be a reason students and faculty prefer one bathroom over another. Sometimes bathroom goers run into bathrooms that are just plain dirty.
The care that goes into the upkeep of specific bathrooms around campus factors into how well it functions, its cleanliness and whether or not anyone using it wants to continue doing so.
There is at least one bathroom in every building, but some are more favored than others. Students find that the newer bathrooms are cleaner.
“I went into the one in the McDonald building downstairs,” said Rylan Powell, a junior biology major from St. George. “That one was like — wow, it was terrible. Dirty and nasty.”
Shayne Mickel Chadwick, a senior integrated studies major from American Fork, said she has been unimpressed with the Jennings building’s restrooms in the past because they were dirty. She prefers the bathrooms located in the Jeffrey R. Holland Centennial Commons.
“They have long mirrors to take selfies in,” Chadwick said. “I’m dead serious.”
Students agree the best bathrooms are the cleanest ones. Sometimes good qualities of favorite restrooms are the particular things that are not in every campus bathroom.
“I like the bathrooms in the Holland building,” Powell said. “They’re really new … They’re kind of cool.”
Spencer Chatland, a sophomore integrated studies major from Fillmore and a staff member for DSU’s Custodial and Maintenance Department, said each restroom is constantly cleaned.
“We clean them every day and every night,” Chatland said. “There’s a day and a night shift, and they get cleaned on every shift. The part-timers do it when they’re there, and then the full-timers do it when they’re not, so they get cleaned multiple times.”
Despite the regular cleanings, Chatland said he has seen some dirty bathrooms as well, like in the old gym.
“That’s probably the worst that I’ve seen,” he said. “When I was cleaning in there it was just really [beat up], but that’s just because those bathrooms are really old, too.”
Overall, people want to enter and leave a restroom without treading over filthy floors or dealing with outdated appliances. Sometimes it’s as simple as the need for a personal space to check appearance.
“Cleanliness [is an important quality],” Chadwick said. “And of course, in a female bathroom you want lots of mirrors because you know that everyone’s checking themselves out before they walk out of that bathroom.”
