You walk into the communal bathroom in your first-year dorm. Right from the start, you hear music blasting on a speaker, echoing off the walls. You see another student dumping a ramen cup all over the sink you are about to brush your teeth at. And when you finally get to the shower, the stall is so small there is not a dry place to put your towel or clothes. You miss your bathroom at home where you can shut the door. That’s the appeal and the need for single-use bathrooms: allowing privacy and comfort. The University of Maine needs to continue investing in single-use bathrooms because it’s an investment in student comfort.
In residence halls alone, there have been 26 single-use bathrooms (toilet, shower and sink) installed since 2020. In total there are 36 complete single-use bathrooms throughout campus residence halls. The most being in Hancock Hall, which just had 17 of them installed over the summer. We also have new single-use bathrooms in our academic halls. Boudreau Hall has had two single-use bathrooms installed in recent years. All of these bathrooms are gender neutral, so anyone can use them.
Single-use bathrooms are incredibly popular on campus. I’ve heard of students moving off campus just so that they can ditch the traditional four-shower freshman bathroom. Single-use bathrooms could be the key to making students want to live on campus. Single-use bathrooms feel less commercial than four-stall bathrooms, which creates a more comfortable environment overall. Single-use bathrooms are just superior. You get an entire room to change your clothes after your shower, instead of a little stall with a tiny bench that’s always soaked.
Around campus, single-use bathrooms are a relief for LGBTQ+ students. Students who identify outside of the gender binary often strongly prefer single use bathrooms, as they are also gender-neutral bathrooms. Single-use bathrooms can be much more comfortable for a transgender or non-binary student who needs that extra privacy. Around 5% of young people identify as transgender or non-binary, so it’s important that the University works to accommodate their needs.
I feel proud of my university for the continued effort to install single use bathrooms. I applaud any administrator that had a hand in funding these construction projects. However, UMaine’s efforts are not all progress. Recently the administration decided to convert Estabrooke hall from a residence hall into office space. Estabrooke included around 60 single rooms, recently renovated in 2016. Estabrook’s main selling feature was its large single-use bathrooms. UMaine turned this space into offices that are not utilized by students.
The University decided to add single-use bathrooms to more residence halls on campus as consolation. However, the new single-use bathrooms are poorly constructed. In Aroostook Hall, single-use bathrooms are closed because the doors are not working. The doors swell with heat and students reported getting stuck in the bathroom. In Hancock Hall, the plumbing in new single-use bathrooms exploded within the first week of use. Residents reported water gushing from the ceiling below these bathrooms.
It’s amazing that the University is investing in the construction of single-use bathrooms. It feels rare that the University invests in facilities that every student benefits from, not just engineering students and athletes. I applaud all the money allocated to renovating student spaces. Single-use bathroom addition is bringing UMaine into the 21st century.
However, what good are these investments if the bathrooms aren’t usable? In the short-term, students are left with decreased bathroom access. The University’s next student investment should be in fixing these bathrooms as soon as possible.
