Students should play part in keeping Pitt’s restrooms clean

Because I know my fellow students, I know that if you are reading this right now you are… Because I know my fellow students, I know that if you are reading this right now you are probably sitting on a University public toilet. Perhaps you could do me a favor when you stand up: flush it. Flushing is a rather common courtesy that most of us learned when we were about two. And, chances are, if you are a human being, you have done it enough times by now to have mastered the skill. Nevertheless, flushing the toilet seems to be a skill that many of us at Pitt seem to have forgotten. We can write a 25-page paper on post-postmodernism, but we can’t flush the toilet.

Now, I realize that flushing public toilets comes with a certain sense of, well, fear. I mean, who knows what germs lurk on those things? Fortunately, God gave us legs, and Michael Jordan gave us Nike Air sneakers. Give that thing a kick, and you’ll work your hammies and your glutes in one sitting.

The difference between the restroom of the Cathedral of Learning at 9 a.m. versus 5 p.m never ceases to amaze me. While the morning restroom looks like the proper place for a person to “conduct his business,” the evening visitor finds toilet paper, paper towels, urine (this may be a particular guy problem) and – gasp – this newspaper strewn all over the floor.

Apparently, we students feel that because the maintenance staff is paid to clean the restrooms, we should make this task as hard as possible. Sure, cleaning the restrooms is part of the maintenance staff’s job. However, writing papers and lab reports is part of our job. Would we appreciate it if our professor kept assigning 10-page papers when a five-page work would suffice? Just like us, the maintenance staff does not get tips. They don’t make any more money if a student politely deposits his paper towel in the waste bin or if he tosses it by the door on the way out. Pitt does not release confidential statistics on the subject, but how much do you think these workers earn? I don’t suppose that it is commensurate with the agony they endure.

I have noticed that when I visit bathrooms in a home or apartment, no one seems to have cast toilet paper all over the floor, and everyone seems to have remembered to flush. Perhaps this is because whoever cleans the bathroom – mom, dad, a sibling or a roommate – would probably give Joe Student a swirly if he treated them the way he treats the maintenance staff. Or, perhaps, this home cleanliness is due to the fact that Joe Student fears that he might have to use the same toilet again within the next 24 hours.

Whatever the reason, it is a sad state of affairs that this dichotomy exists. It is, in fact, incredibly selfish of us and a poor reflection on our college. I understand that bathroom cleanliness is a public good, and that there is always the tendency to be a free rider. But just because one can litter and get away with it does not mean that one should pepper the roadside with plastic bottles. We all have to look at the same eyesores.

Over the past four years, I have occasionally picked up the paper towels strewn about the Hillman Library restrooms and placed them in the wastebasket. Although I am not challenging all students to do this, I am challenging all Pitt students to treat our maintenance staff with a little more respect and appreciation and start placing our towels in the trash can in the first place.

Really, it’s not so hard to dispose of a paper towel after you wash your hands. Also, it’s not so hard to avoid clogging the toilet. In my four years at Pitt, I have managed to clog the toilet a total of zero times. Use a little less toilet paper and you can save some trees, some water and some noses.

Guys can also lift the toilet seat. We can touch it, I promise. We’re going to wash our hands anyway.

Keeping the restrooms clean is not an impossible task. All it takes is a little effort and a little desire to enhance the common good. All of us will benefit from keeping the restroom a little bit cleaner. Despite Joe Student’s short-sighted analysis, he may actually have to go in there again. I’m sure he will be thankful if he and the rest of us kept it clean.

So, the next time that you use a Pitt restroom: flush the toilet, throw away your towel and please, for goodness sake, don’t throw me on the floor on your way out.

Jacob Vanzin reads his own column in the Pitt restrooms. If you would like to flush him down the toilet, e-mail jav9@pitt.edu.