North Texas Daily

Erica Wieting / Staff Writer

Opinions of the showers on campus will differ depending on whom you talk to.

Despite claims from students that dorm showers are cold and dirty with nearly nonexistent water pressure, the campus maintenance department said the community dorm showers are carefully kept up and cleaned five times per week.  It also said it hears very few complaints from students.

On-campus ears are privy to a different story.

History senior Amanda Emerton said she remembers her freshman year at Crumley, where she stayed in a suite-style room and shared a bathroom with three other girls.  She was scrubbing what she thought was a permanent stain on the floor of the shower, but what turned out to be dirt started to come off.

“My RA told me not to worry about it too much,” Emerton said.  “It made me wonder how sanitary things were.”

Advertising freshman Nathan Cooper said the water pressure and temperature in his suite-style bathroom at Kerr is “iffy.”  He said the fact that he shares the bathroom with three other college guys doesn’t help with the cleanliness factor.

Special housing assistant Maria Ross said students are responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms in the suite-style rooms. Students are also required to report any issues to their residence hall desk.

“People think that complaints flow to us all the time, but a lot of times people keep [their complaints] to themselves,” associate vice president for facilities David Reynolds said.  “It really helps if they’ll turn it in.”

If students never tell the front desk of their building that something is wrong, Ross said, then a work order is never submitted.  Consequently, the maintenance department never hears of the problem, and it never gets fixed.

Across campus, the Pohl Recreation Center locker rooms and restrooms are cleaned at least three to four times per day, including nightly on weekdays. Associate director of facilities Christian Lawrence said the recreation center has a different maintenance team than the dorms do.

In fact, Lawrence said this year the Rec Center teamed up with a new contract custodial company, Members Building Maintenance.

“They provide the custodians and we provide the on-site supervision,” Lawrence said.  “We let them know what’s dirty, what needs to be done and how we want it done.”

The Rec Center also provides all of its own chemicals and equipment in the contract. Lawrence said there are two day custodians, one male and one female, who work Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  There are two weekend custodians as well, but they only work four hours a day.

On weekdays, Lawrence said a night crew comes in to clean the facility shortly before it closes at midnight. They bring their own cleaning equipment and supplies, and spend two to three hours on cleaning activities like mopping and disinfecting floors, scrubbing showers and cleaning restrooms.

Twice a week, each restroom and locker room is cleaned with a Windsor machine, a high pressure system that Lawrence said is like a home car wash. Keeping the locker rooms clean, he said, is his main priority.

“The custodians that we have are top-notch,” Lawrence said.  “They work tirelessly to keep the place looking good.”

News of the cleanliness and functionality of the Rec Center showers seems to be spreading slowly across campus. 

Studio art junior Courtney Hassman said when she lived at Kerr the building management would put up signs sending residents across campus to shower at the Rec.

“There would be quite a few consecutive days where there was just no hot water,” Hassman said.

Featured Image: A row showers in the Pohl Recreation Center. Photo by Erica Wieting – Staff Writer