Facility Services has teams of people working to manage a vital part of campus — bathrooms.
Bathrooms are frequented areas on campus found in every building aside from Dodson Auditorium, and some need constant upkeep.
Robert Benton, assistant director of Facility Maintenance, said funding availability determines large-scale maintenance work and renovations.
Deferred maintenance funds, capital outlay funds and building use fees, among others, can finance those projects, according to Tammy Millican, assistant director of Facility Services.
“Bathroom renovations are very expensive,” Benton said. “We could do a whole classroom for the same price as a very small two-stall bathroom.”
“No one lives in a bathroom,” said Sam Territo, director of Facility Systems. “It’s something you use. We tend to focus on keeping them clean and operational over beautiful,”
Stacy Whitfield, assistant director of Building Services, said every custodial worker on campus is able to clean bathrooms, and workers monitor some buildings more than others.
The custodial staff checks high-traffic bathrooms daily while they prepare low traffic bathrooms every evening. The staff implements black light cleaning when bathrooms require thorough bacteria removal, Whitfield said. The deep cleaning method uses a black light to find germs and bacteria invisible in regular light.
“You take a building like ECE — it is mostly research and like an office environment — and it can go 24 hours without a lot of attention,” Territo said. “You take a Tureaud or a Lockett, no, because of the volume of the students and usage.”
Whitfield said custodial staff answer daily calls to bathrooms needing cleaning attention or supplies like toilet paper, paper towels and soap.
Millican said the office’s work control department receives calls from building coordinators, dispatches workers and Facility Services encourages students to call or tell a building department if they notice an issue.
The University’s maintenance department also receives frequent calls for issues like stalls not locking, plumbing issues and burnt out lights, said Benton.
“I think we do a pretty good job of responding to those kind of calls. Keeping [the bathrooms] operational is our number one goal,” Territo said.
Now Facility Services is beginning to examine Lockett Hall’s bathrooms. The original plans were poorly designed with narrow bathroom and stall doors fit for “grade school” children, Territo said.
Whitfield said he noticed the tightness, because some custodial equipment does not fit through the door.
Many major bathroom renovations are part of entire building renovations like the Business Education Complex, but some, like Pleasant Hall, are independent.
Facility Services renovated Pleasant Hall’s first floor bathrooms to help with enrollment, since many campus tours start there.
“Some of the stalls weren’t locking, so parents were having to hold the doors for other parents, and it was kind of embarrassing,” Benton said.
Materials the University is required to use are stronger and longer lasting while being easier to clean, Whitfield said. New dispensers allow bathrooms to remain stocked for longer periods.
Territo said buildings with newer bathrooms are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and have a certain number of stalls per the occupancy of buildings, but new bathrooms do not always mean better bathrooms.
Territo compared old, reliable bathrooms to cars, “A classic car is a classic. When you get something that’s built really well, it will stand the test of time.”