By: Abbey Raynes
With the hopeful return of in-person instruction soon upon us, both old and new students come to campus with the same unfamiliar and anxious feeling. As classes get back on campus, most individuals will start to navigate their new in person schedules and busyness throughout the day and try to become more comfortable.
Yet one problem might remain: as most Western students are preoccupied on campus with classes or schoolwork, so many either refuse to use restrooms on school grounds because of anxiety and cleanliness or do not have the time to find adequate options.
As someone who also dislikes using public restrooms, I am not fond of waiting several hours until I am able to drive home to use my personal one.
Tackling classes every day and working my position as the Assistant Editor for the AS Review can be difficult because I am on campus for the majority of the day and can’t be at home.
With that complication, I have had to compromise and settle with using campus bathrooms, but some students may not have that luxury because they genuinely feel uncomfortable.
In order to front this issue many students face, we have compiled a list of what I and my AS Review co-workers think the best bathrooms are on campus, to offer some form of solution to those who hate using public restrooms or options for thrill seekers throughout our student body.
With four out of the five AS Review members being either completely new to the university or this being first year being in person, most of our team does not have much experience at Western, however as the year has gone by, everyone has been able to find their way around and stumble upon some hidden gems.
Sophomore Caylee Caldwell, one of our AS Review writers, said her favorite bathroom was VU 554, on the fifth floor in the Viking Union because rarely anyone goes in there.
“It’s nice to have no one in the bathroom because it makes me nervous having other people in there,” Caylee said.
Caylee said she can get pee-shy so it’s nice to have an empty bathroom to use because it doesn’t get too overly crowded. Unlike Caylee, Sophia Nuun, our 20-year-old AS Review Photographer, said she doesn’t get pee-shy and works with what she has.
Since Sophia only had only two classes last quarter, she hasn’t been to many restrooms across campus but particularly favors one in the Wilson Library. She said her favorite place to go is the first-floor bathroom in the library, near the staircase because she likes the amenities it has.
“I like that there is a coat rack,” Sophia said. “The big mirrors are nice too, good for a selfie moment.”
The entrance to the first floor women’s Wilson Library bathroom. (Sophia Nunn // AS Review)
Even though Caylee and Sophia share very different perspectives on their favorite spots, the variety of bathrooms on campus offer a wide spectrum of options for those who have different criteria on what makes a decent bathroom.
For instance, Post Bacc student Cooper Castelle, our other AS Review writer, based his decision on convenience. Being that this is Cooper’s first year at WWU, convenience is a huge element because campus is so large.
Similarly to Caylee, Cooper chose the sixth-floor bathroom in the Viking Union as his favorite because it was the most familiar to him.
“It’s the first bathroom I go into when I get to campus and then leave campus,” Cooper said.
Cooper said he’s at school for a large chunk of time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it’s an easy bathroom to use because it’s always “right there”.
Contrasting to the rest of us, our Editor in Chief, Travis Lane, is a fourth year student that has had many favorite bathrooms over the course of his enrollment. One of his notable favorites are the options in Carver Gym because of its environment.
“It is a great location because it’s centralized in the middle of campus,” Travis said. “They are also quite large so there’s always going to be a spot and it’s often very clean.”
As an avid campus bathroom user, his other most utilized bathrooms range all over campus from the convenience of ground floor Haggard Hall to the warmth and all levels of coziness in Academic West that has been useful to him throughout his time at college.
Although Travis has had more previous knowledge about the layout and options, in the short time I have been on school grounds I have stumbled upon my own “diamond in the rough”.
My favorite bathroom, one of the best I have been in, is on the first floor of the Communications Facility. While it’s very convenient to me because I had a class in that building, there are also many perks.
With 14 stalls and seven sinks, it’s one of the largest bathrooms on campus I have seen, making it very open and favorable to use.
This bathroom hits all the marks for my criteria and it should be worth checking out, especially for those who get bathroom anxiety.
Not to mention, the overhead lighting and checkered floors add a nice comfortability and cleanliness feel. Its pristine hotel look makes the public experience much more homely, unlike most communal restrooms.
The endless stalls in the Communications Facility bathroom. (Sophia Nunn // AS Review)
With this compiled list from the AS Review, these recommendations are some valuable options to consider as the year moves forward.
Although it can be challenging to pick what campus has to offer, there is a wide range of satisfactory bathrooms to choose from as this list is only touching the surface level of options.
Even though it may be a challenge to break out of this shell, this quarter is all about adapting to new changes, even if it is as insignificant as searching for your favorite public restroom. And if we missed something, be sure to let us know.