OPINION: The five worst women's bathrooms at UMD

BY Laura Gruhlke | Guest Columnist |

1. Heller Hall

The Heller Hall bathroom is by far the worst woman’s bathroom on campus.

Most of us have probably been casually walking to our lecture class in Chem 200 and thought “Hey, well I’m here better take a bathroom break before class,” and walked into this bathroom. First of all, there are only two stalls. Then one of these stalls has a shower curtain as a door! Seriously, what is with this bathroom? How am I supposed to tell if someone is using the shower curtain stall or not without peeking in? With the traffic coming from such a big lecture hall and having it off a main hallway, you would think that they would put a bigger bathroom in that location. If you haven’t been in this bathroom, please don’t. It is worth the extra steps to use the Kirby bathroom, trust me.

2. DC

As freshman, many of us have probably used the bathroom next to the DC and regretted it dearly. First of all, that bathroom never smells nice. I mean it’s next to the DC so what do you expect? It also just never seems to be clean, even after seeing someone clean it, I swear it still isn’t clean. If you really have to go before or after going to the DC, just make the run back to the dorm bathrooms, so worth it.

3. Humanities 3rd Floor

Most students have taken a class in the Humanities building at some point in their college career. If you have taken one on the third floor, then you know how horrible the bathroom on that floor is. I’m sure that bathroom has been cleaned, but that dirt on the beautiful yellow tile is here to stay. It will forever be disgusting. The stall doors barely even lock anymore. If you have a class on this floor and have to go, try to hold it until you get to your next destination.

4. Library 3rd Floor

If you study in the library on the third floor you know that in the back corner is this single stall unisex bathroom. Not that this bathroom is necessarily dirty per se, it’s on the worst list because it is a unisex bathroom, indicative of all unisex bathrooms. The possibility of having to touch the toilet seat, with my hand, to put the seat down is not something to enjoy when going to the bathroom. That to me is enough to make it one of the worst bathrooms. I am not your mom, put the seat down! Now I usually just walk to the bigger bathrooms in the front of the library to avoid that single stall.

5.  Bohannon

I would say that the bathroom by the Bohannon and Montague lecture halls is the most used bathroom, which is why it makes this list. Not because it is old and always dirty but since it is used very frequently, it just becomes messy fast. If you have a class next to one of these popular lecture halls you’ve most likely stopped at this bathroom and it can be a hit or miss. Some times during the day it can be clean and then other times it can have toilet paper and who knows what else on the floor from all the traffic. I would say that use this bathroom with caution. Although it is a big bathroom, so you can typically find a stall that is clean.