Several students said they have noticed trash building up in the second-floor bathrooms of McKeldin Library, prompting one person to post signs asking for patrons to show more respect for the building’s five housekeepers.
Last month, an anonymous McKeldin Library patron became fed up with the filthiness that came to characterize the restrooms on the building’s second floor.
Rather than blame the library’s housekeeping team, this person posted small signs throughout the second floor women’s restroom calling on students to clean up after themselves.
“Would you want to clean up the mess you just made???” one note reads. “Well neither does the one woman who cleans this whole building. Be respectful and keep it classy ladies.”
This act of diligence did not go unnoticed by Anthony Stewart, the building’s housekeeping services coordinator, who said the library is staffed by five housekeepers who work throughout the day taking shifts between 4 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.
“That is a person with a conscience,” Stewart said of the anonymous patron. “Most users of restrooms will just be concerned with getting in there quickly, utilizing the facility and getting out without paying attention to the condition. If the facility is in a poor manner, then the first thing that comes to mind is that maybe the housekeeper is not doing their job.”
However, Stewart noted that after library officials remodeled the second floor into a large-scale group study space more than a year ago, the increased traffic may have caused messes in the bathrooms to pile up faster than the housekeepers could keep up with.
The litter in the restrooms also caught the eyes of other students, several of whom agreed patrons share equal responsibility for keeping the space clean.
“Three years ago I would have been like ‘oh my god that is so gross [the housekeeping staff] should clean it but now I realize that it is our responsibility,” junior sociology major Kate Ratcliffe said.
Stewart also noted students sometimes vandalize the stalls with graffiti and “literally trash” the bathrooms intentionally.
“All of the users in the facility should have a sense of ownership and think just as the person who wrote that note did, to say this is ours and we must take care of it,” said Stewart.
Several other students said they decided to take similar actions to keep campus bathrooms clean.
Junior ecology and evolutionary biology major Kelly Jackson said when she lived in Cumberland Hall, she and her neighbors posted similar notes after someone vomited all over the building.
“We had a wonderful cleaning lady who was so nice, we felt bad,” Jackson said.
However, she said both housekeepers and students share the responsibility for taking care of facilities.
“So I would say that if it is someone’s personal mess they should clean it up, but if it is something that has accumulated over time the cleaning crew should take care of it.”
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