By Only a 15-minute break? Standing in line, urgently tapping your foot, and counting down the minutes to class. An immediate rush of concern arises because like every time you have gone to use the restroom, 10 people are still waiting in line before you.
Long Beach State is made up of 322 acres of land. Over 40,000 people walk on and utilize the campus weekly, attending classes, work, events and more.
The College of Liberal Arts is the largest college on campus with 31 departments, 9,300 undergraduate students and 575 graduate students, according to the university website. With classes mostly situated around the Liberal Arts buildings, the restroom near LA3 becomes the most convenient choice for a quick trip.
On campus, it’s extremely visible that each building between LA 1 to LA 5 has limited access to restrooms, especially during a rush. Students no doubt find themselves more than once urgently waiting for the restroom while needing to attend their next class within 15 minutes.
While waiting in line for the restroom, Amy Aguilar, a 20-year-old public relations major, deals with this exact issue.
“During my one gap between classes, I tend to go to multiple parts of campus such as the USU, College of Business, and the Theater Building,” Aguilar said. “I found that when going to these restrooms, although traveling from my classes, there is more space, comfortability and way less back up of people waiting to go.”
Although it’s possible for a Liberal Arts major to utilize other locations such as the University Student Union or Theatre building, is that the most realistic option based on circumstances?
During a break before class, Nathalie Romero, a 21-year-old psychology major, expressed her personal struggle while rapidly searching for a usable restroom.
“I feel like the restrooms are hardly ever maintained. Especially the ones near the LA buildings and Psychology building. They’re either always out of soap, toilet paper or toilet seat covers, or [are] just left dirty from previous uses,” she said.
Romero said, “I’ve gone to the restroom countless times and have had to skip over a couple of empty stalls simply because of the state they were left in. From toilet paper being left all over them to it being completely clogged, it’s clear that no one is doing regular maintenance or touch-ups on the bathrooms.”
She said that with the CSU system recently raising tuition prices, “you would think with that money we would have better and cleaner bathrooms to use, especially ones that don’t look like they could be seen at the beach which isn’t a compliment.”
The challenge of finding a usable restroom is not limited to students near the LA buildings but is a campus-wide phenomena.
Kenny Hernandez, a 20-year-old political science major, said that despite the scheduled cleanings, using the Kinesiology building restroom is beyond uncomfortable as there are only two extremely tiny stalls.
“This past semester, I experienced a new obstacle of having to use the Kinesiology restrooms. It was upsetting to see that the restroom only has two stalls, and at that, a broken sink too,” Hernandez said.
“It should be fixed so there is a smoother process for the students on campus,” he said.
Victoria Iglesias, a 20-year-old criminology and criminal justice major, shared a similar struggle.
“Exiting my last class of the day, I was trying to find a bathroom before commuting home and passed by the College Health & Human Services Building. Only two extremely outdated bathroom stalls were present — paired with a presence of filth,” he said. “All bathrooms should contain at least more than two stalls as the population on campus is so high.”
Despite student opinion, Associate Vice President of Beach Building Services, Mark Zakhour said that, “The public restrooms on campus are constantly cleaned and maintained on a scheduled basis to ensure cleanliness and function.”
In an interview with the Current, Zakhour said, “We have not observed nor received other reports of excessive wait times for restrooms.”
He said that students should know the planning of the university’s facilities is based on the “California Plumbing Code and requires various factors like type of facility, square footage, number of floors, number of individuals served, distance to other restrooms, and other considerations that we are required to follow when we build new or renovate a facility.”
With no clear resolution or plan to implement more restrooms, the issue of wait times and persistent struggle to find a restroom will continue to rise and escalate with an ever-increasing student population.
