Cover it up

 by Melissa Matyas
 published on Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Chelsea Kent / STATE PRESS MAGAZINE

Campus bathrooms don't always have the best conditions and touching anything might cause an infectious disease. Toilet-seat covers are foreign objects that are rarely seen behind the toilet bowls plaguing campus. Students are reduced to layering with toilet paper, hovering above the seat or avoiding the bathroom altogether.

"I make it a point to not use public restrooms in general, especially [the ones in] Lattie Coor," photography freshman James Holder says.

However, student suspicions about disease-covered toilets should be the least of all public-bathroom worries. A professor from the University of Arizona conducted a study on all campus bathrooms, desks and floors to test for the level of germs and contaminants, according to Dean Hooks, ASU associate director for facilities management.

"The study found that the most polluted area in the restroom is the door while entering the bathroom and the faucet handles," Hooks says.

Custodial supervisor Jay Reeder says he is only aware of three bathrooms on campus that have seat covers. Departments are required to pay for the covers out of their own budget if they choose to provide them, he says.

"I think they should have [toilet-seat covers] because I've witnessed some pretty foul things in the bathrooms," marketing freshman Liz Novak says.

The University of Arizona provided covers in all campus bathrooms for a while, but the cost became too great, Hooks says. "The cost was running about $10,000 a month and almost $1 million per year," he says.

Students should be more concerned with touching everything else in the bathroom. "Our custodians spray down the seats with antibacterial spray a couple times a day, but if they are that concerned, they can wipe the seats down with Clorox wipes," Hooks says.

— melissa.matyas@asu.edu