Shephard Hall Basement Men’s Restroom Review
By Clark Adomaitis
Photos By Clark Adomaitis
The basement of Shepard Hall is verysmall, but it still has some instrument lockers and music offices. Few peopleever use this floor. However, the floor possesses the largest, yet the leastpopulated, “Men’s” bathroom in Shepard. Maximum two to three people use thisbathroom at a time even during campus’ busiest hours, like Tuesdays orThursdays during club hours.
The men’s bathroom has twoindicators: a sign with a male icon and “MEN’S BATHROOM” written in blackpermanent marker on the door in chicken scratch handwriting. The door, propertyof CCNY, is vandalized by CCNY’s own facilities department, it appears.
I use the toilet. All of my shakes,sniffles, and rippings of toilet paper echo in the empty bathroom. Tragically,the stall I occupy has no coat hook. My backpack and coat litter the floor,collecting dirt particles. I am upset. My level of upset-ness increases when Isee that the stall door does not lock. However, this inconvenience seemsinsignificant considering the amount of people in the bathroom right now whomight accidentally walk in on me, which is zero.
The walls of the stall are notfilthy. They do have some hand and brown liquid stains scattered around. I donot know what they are from. Interestingly, the walls to either side of me areclean compared to the inside of the door which I face. The door hassignificantly more stains and grease on it. This means that a janitor whoenters the stall to clean might not close the door behind them. What is thereason for their haste? Not even the CCNY employee whose job it is to clean thebathroom wants to spend much time down in this creepy, old space. Conversely, Iam enjoying the peace and quiet that this room offers me.
The school toilet paper is thin. Iuse more than three sheets to cover the seat. I cover the seat because I do nottrust public facilities in general, let alone a CCNY bathroom. Knowing thefacilities department here, I am sure the janitors come down relatively often,but I still do not trust the seat.
The bathroom has 11 urinals. Never,ever will there be 11 men urinating in this bathroom at the same time. Whatgoes into deciding the amounts of toilets per bathroom? What was the reason for11? Did this bathroom at one point experience traffic of 11 men at a time?
The bathroom’s six toilet stalls areslightly oddly spaced. Once again, 6 is a disproportionate amount.Interestingly, only four stalls have toilets in them. The other two just haveempty spots where a toilet should go.
Only one toilet and one urinal hadurine in it, which does not disappoint me because this number is average forCCNY bathrooms.
The bathroom has a large,closet-like wheelchair accessible bathroom. This bathroom has its own coathook, lock, sink, mirror, and soap dispenser. It even has its own radiator andwindow access. One could live here, considering the amount of traffic thisbathroom sees and the amenities it possesses. The only negative thing aboutthis wheelchair accessible bathroom is that there are two large, unsafe holesin the floor that go down into the abyss of Shepard Hall. Inside of the holesare dusty pipes and nozzles. One could easily hurt themselves gravely, especiallya disabled person. One of the massive square holes is directly in front of thetoilet where a user’s legs would rest. As I sit, my legs dangle. I would adviseusers to be very careful when using this stall because 30% of the floor ismissing.
If one stinks up the room, one canopen a window two and a half feet tall for refreshing relief. Outside of thewindow, there is no mosquito net cover. Rather, there is a black metal fencethat does not allow people to exit. Even if one somehow removed the metal fencethat covers the window, one would find oneself in a 15 foot deep pit litteredwith trash, cigarette butts, and old leaves. From the pit, there is no way toescape to sidewalk level besides impossibly scaling the wall. The setup of thiswindow, black fence, and large pit tell a tale of imprisonment.
Eight sinks line two walls of thebathroom. Again, zero people are in this bathroom using them besides me. We donot need this many sinks! Because of their lack of use, some of the basins ofthe sinks are dirty and dusty. The only correct amount of something that thisbathroom has is the four soap dispensers and the one garbage can. The soap andpaper towel dispensers are well stocked. Only one of them does not have soap.An ideal ratio for a very unpopulated bathroom such as this one is two urinals,two toilets, two sinks, and one paper towel dispensers.
The floor’s hexagonal pattern wasonce black and white. It is now black, white, and brown. The dirt patches onthe floor would require more than a mop to exterminate.
There is no Wifi access and littlecell service. Shepard Hall’s “ccny wifi” access is notoriously awful.
A few brief, positive notes: all ofthe toilet paper dispensers are well stocked and the toilets are all prettyclean. The trash can has a low amount of trash, which means it was emptiedwithin the past two weeks. Large mirrors line the walls, with a metallic basethat you can place your belongings on.
Overall, the bathroom is old, dirty,falling apart, and gross. The disproportionate size, amount of urinals, toilets, and sinkssubtract many points from its score. However, for the unideal hugeness of thisbathroom, it is very empty and calming. I find myself in this bathroom for longperiods of time talking aloud to myself, having personal revelations, andclearing my head of the noise and business that I experience around the rest ofschool. The peace, quiet, and freedom that one experiences during long bathroomsessions in this locale make up for its inefficient use of space. 5/10
