With each new incoming freshman class the horrors of communal bathrooms begin all over again. Hairs are left all over the sinks, toilets are left unflushed, and everything from condoms to used tampons is found on the floors of the showers. What happened to the common courtesy of cleaning up after yourself?  More importantly, are people really aware of all the germs, diseases, and illnesses that can come from uncleanliness?

These are the problems that the average student here at Pace is faced with; the few lucky ones are the commuters and the people that live in the townhouses, Dow or New Dorm.

“I live in the houses so I don’t ever have to worry about wearing flip flops or wonder who left the sink a mess. We all help clean the bathrooms and if it’s one person in particular that has made a mess of things we make sure that they clean it up,” said junior accounting major Courtney Dillon.

So what about the rest of Pace?

Some of the most common illnesses are passed in communal bathrooms, such as: simple germs that can give you the common cold and stomach viruses, to others that can lead to more serious illnesses like meningitis, hepatitis A, and pneumonia. These can be found on toilet seats, faucets, door handles, and just about any other surface in a restroom.

Of all the places that can be contaminated in the bathroom, the sinks and counters are by far the worst – they are covered in over 100 thousand germs. And not just because the person before you forgot to rinse out the sink after spitting out the remnants of their toothpaste and mouthwash.  When you flush the toilet you are causing feces particles to fly into the air, landing on almost every surface in the bathroom, including that faucet, sink, and even the countertop where you place your valuables.

“I always wash my hands after going into the restroom, I think its super gross when I see people that just walk out of the stalls and right on out without doing so,” said freshman criminal justice major Patrick Dooley. “And I always wear flip flops in the showers, they give me a sense of security that I won’t catch anything because the bathrooms are always gross when I go in them; once, I even found a used condom in a shower stall so I just waited for the next shower to become available.”

So why are flip-flops one of the best purchases you can make for college?

In the shower alone, the germs that are left behind from others can lead you to catch a number of things including staph infections, athlete’s foot, plantar warts (caused by HPV), and even meningitis. Bacteria, viruses, and fungi that lead to these health problems all thrive in moist, warm environments—in other words, the showers that everyone uses.  By wearing flip-flops you are saving yourself from quite a bit of pain.

So what is to be done about our communal bathrooms and the ever-growing messes that we are finding? When asked, students have raved about the cleaning crews that we have here in the dorms and how well they take care of the bathrooms.

“The cleaning people were great but the kids were too rowdy,” said sophomore communications major Griffin Timoney when asked about his experience living in North Hall his freshman year. “I would always see them coming in to clean up and for like 10 minutes, the bathroom would be spotless and perfect, and then someone would throw up in the showers or flood it and it would become a giant mess again.”

Even Dooley agreed that we have an amazing cleaning crew that takes care of the dorms. “I feel like the cleaning crew does an amazing job but people go in – not even 20 minutes later – and they become a mess again. I feel like people should take responsibility for their messes and learn to clean up after themselves.”

In agreement with Dooley, we can take extra steps when in the bathroom to not only help keep the messes to a minimum but also to keep from catching or passing along any germs.

When in the restroom, try not to spray the toilets with your bodily fluids – and if you do, wipe it off.  Don’t touch the handle to flush the toilet either; use your foot or some toilet paper to flush if you can. When it comes to the sink areas, make sure that when you brush your teeth, shave, brush your hair, or anything else that can be messy, wipe it all up and thoroughly rinse out the sink. Nobody else needs to worry about the chance of touching your spit or having your hair all over them.

Finally, actually wash your hands with soap and water, dry afterward with a paper towel, the whole shebang. By drying your hands with a paper towel afterward you are cutting the germs you might have contracted by 65 percent. Never use a hand-dryer: the hot moist air can cause the germs on your hands to grow by 162 percent thus being counteractive to the whole washing of the hands in the first place.

If possible, use a paper towel to turn off the water faucets and open the door, as well. Remember, you touched that faucet with dirty hands to turn it on and washed, clean hands don’t always greet that door handle.