Nitai Ben-Shach (3L)
The new law building is offensive and regressive. More specifically, the bathrooms are unacceptable and egregious. Now, many of you might be thinking “Nitai! They are accessible, gender-neutral, single-stall beacons of modern day sanitation and acceptance!” To this, I answer “Nay.”
While the bathrooms themselves follow the most modern guidelines of what it means to be a “safe space,” a feat for which the administration should be commended, they have one obvious failing. We have been given a safe space…at the expense of a dry space.
I bring your attention to the latest “I pay 30,000 f#$@ing dollars to go to this school and I get this?” crisis. Go to Jackman Hall. Use any of the new “safe” bathrooms and answer me this: are the paper towel dispensers not too far from the sinks? Such a unifying issue has the power to bring together gay and straight people, cis and trans people, the patriarchy and the SLS executive, Israelis and Palestinians and all other peoples to shout in one voice: WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO TURN AROUND AND DRIP WATER ON THE FLOOR TO WASH OUR HANDS!
Ethan Feldman (3L JD-MBA 2017), an avid bathroom user, is misquoted as saying “In traditional bathrooms I was guilted into washing my hands. In these new single-stall bathrooms, with paper towel so far from the sink that getting to the dispenser would be considered a cardiovascular exercise, I have even more reasons not to wash my hands!” A disgusting comment from a gross (but misunderstood) human being. Who knows what tortious action may result from wet hands, a wet door handle and the accumulation of droplets on the ground from people spinning around to access the paper towel. This piece serves as much to raise public awareness to officially warn the school.
Another thing that really grinds my gears about these bathrooms is the fact that, with all of the modern toilet-based technology at the contractor’s disposal, the sanitary hands-free motion sensor flushing technology is useless because of the solid toilet seat covers that are being used. Garth Murray (3L JD-MGA-WASP) never said “These new toilets are a travesty and an insult to the very definition of what it means to be a law student.” If he had, I know we would all whole-heartedly agree.
The toilet sensors which would flush all waste down without us ever having to look into the bowl or besmirch our hands (and in Ethan Feldman’s case, everything he later touches after not washing his hands) with our own unspeakables, are being blocked. So what is our remaining option? To denigrate ourselves to the level of someone who flushes their own toilet. Not with a handle. Nay. With a button that is as cold and wet as a puppy’s nose. In the event that we wanted to cover our hands in paper towel before touching the button, we would have to make the 45km trek across the stall to even get to the dispenser!
Fix this before we get “flooded” with issues. Come on… It’s 2016.
