Picture this: It’s the end of July, 5 p.m., and you just received your dorm assignment. After the typical 30-minute stalk that leads you to your new roommate’s 5th-grade chorus concert video, you parcel through dorm facts to find out what kind of room and bathroom set-up you will have. A communal bathroom, though shared with your floor, does get cleaned daily by Campus Services. An ensuite bathroom, though you must clean it alongside two to eight people, means more privacy and no hallway showers! Yippee!
However, this initial sentiment of glee toward ensuite bathrooms is bound to change as, after a couple of weeks of living among your suitemates, problems arise. Different standards of cleanliness and repetitive discussions regarding cleaning schedules leave ensuite bathrooms feeling unbearable. Instead of subjecting students to all-too-awkward conversations about hygiene and cleaning sessions, all student bathrooms should be communal.
Depending on the suite, up to eight people could be cleaning one bathroom—a harder feat than imagined, especially when schedules are hard to adhere to and your suitemates may not share your cleaning preferences. Chastising people over their refusal to clean up after themselves is not ideal, so what could solve this problem? I ventured out to ask the maintenance department, one freshman sharing a hallway bathroom, and one with an ensuite bathroom to understand if all students would benefit from the communal lifestyle.
Upon questioning Jonathan Palumbo, a Harvard College communications team spokesperson, on how the department decides which bathrooms to clean, he directed me to the College’s Student Handbook under “Care of Residential Property.” The handbook states, “All students living in rooms containing an ensuite bathroom are responsible for the cleaning of the bathroom… Rooms will be inspected periodically during the year and at the end of each academic year. Charges will be levied for violations of rules and repair, including damages or other interventions resulting from lack of cleaning; these charges will be added to the occupants’ term bill.”
Since it’s often difficult to hold students accountable for cleaning their own spaces, I felt compelled to ask them what their opinions on their current style of bathrooms were. Saira Rodriguez ’27, a freshman in Holworthy Hall who shares an eight-person bathroom with her suitemates and the suite across the hallway, by no means enjoyed the ensuite bathroom life the first couple of months of school. “At first there definitely were some issues regarding keeping sinks clean, throwing and taking out trash, keeping the toilets clean, etc.,” she said.
After setting up a cleaning schedule, Rodriguez soon realized that cleaning a bathroom is more than just delegating tasks to certain people. “I think we do a good job of cleaning each week. But I would love it if it were able to stay clean throughout the week. So if there were a service for bathrooms to be cleaned every day or even every other day I think we would definitely benefit from that,” she said.
On the other hand, Nadia Borja ’27, a freshman who lives in Canaday Hall and shares a hallway bathroom with just one more student than Rodriguez, has conflicted feelings about her setup. As a person who spends much of her time in Rodriguez’s dorm in Holworthy Hall, Borja offers a unique perspective in her comparison of ensuite and hallway bathrooms. “Contrary to popular opinion, I actually prefer ensuite bathrooms because, since my bathroom is outside of my suite, I get locked out [out of my suite] pretty often.”
However, Borja does reflect on the sanitation aspect well. “I like the cleanliness of hallway bathrooms… I think they’re cleaned once a day.” Borja also positively reflects on her maintenance workers. “I really like the Campus Services worker who cleans my bathroom. Luz is the best!”
Borja has just one more person on her floor than the maximum number for ensuite bathrooms, yet her bathroom is cleaned daily, due to it being in the hallway. To rectify this problem and keep the blame off of Campus Services for not cleaning ensuite bathrooms, all bathrooms should be communal.
In the ensuite bathrooms that I’ve witnessed, students are quick to dispose of food in shared bathroom garbage and refuse to clean up after themselves when they shower. As college students, having to coordinate and enforce a cleaning schedule with multiple different people can be stress-inducing and shift the responsibility to specific suitemates who clean. This situation is especially heightened during freshman year when students can’t choose suitemates that they feel share their cleaning and living styles.
Overall, keeping a shared space tidy is a difficult feat, but important to well-being. Although reconstructing these bathrooms and financing these developments lends itself to problems in relocating freshmen away from the Yard during renovations, Harvard students in ensuite bathrooms would be ensured fairness and cleanliness if they were all communal. After all, you can’t put a price on hygiene.
Emily Pallan ’27 (emilypallan@college.harvard.edu) is a germaphobe with an ensuite bathroom.