Restroom Review – Stimson Dining Hall Bathroom

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Photo credit: Neassa Hunt

I suppose it’s a bit redundant to call it the “Stimson Dining Hall bathroom” because Stimson is no longer a dining hall. In my defense, this whole review is kind of redundant as we don’t really know the future of Stimson, but it’s my last review of the semester. Probably my last review EVER since I’m supposed to be graduating in December. So, I can do what I want with it and I want to do Stimson. Also, there’s a dorm review in this edition of the Q and if you (the reader) have IBS or else just live in Gamble 2 and need to use an assortment of other restrooms and you want to take this bathroom torch out of my cold dead hands, feel free. You don’t need to be a writer — I’m certainly not one.

Just like Stimson, I’m unsure of my own future outside of college. Stimson was the dorm that welcomed me into Goucher and it only seems fair that it ushers me out as well. It was also the bathroom that first inspired these reviews in the first place. Not because it was particularly lacking, but because one stall (my favorite stall) was missing a hook. And it always frustrated me, even though there were two other perfectly usable stalls with hooks in them. Well, the third one wasn’t entirely usable, but we’ll get to that.

The Stimson hall bathrooms are divided by gender so for the sake of this review, I will be covering the women’s room. (Apologies to male and gender-neutral students.) Assuming you are using the Stimson entrance with the vending machines, go straight up those three little stairs in between the two sets of food and beverage vending machines and on your right is the men’s room and then the women’s. Sometimes the lighting is a bit dim in the entrance.

Normally, privacy would be the first thing discussed, but for Stimson, the most important thing is the SMELL. Stimson, the building, has a smell to it. Not just the bathroom, not just the dorm or the dining hall, the whole building. Now, I lived in Wagner for two years and I’ve adjusted, so now I can barely register it. But for the uninitiated, the smell can be a little overwhelming. I’m not going to dock points, but I am laying out a warning. This is a three-stall bathroom so there’s nothing stopping another person from coming in, but I started using this bathroom in the first place because most of the time it’s pretty sparingly used by other people. Even when this bathroom was servicing an active dining hall, there were times you could find privacy in this room.

The décor is nice. It’s very tan but welcoming. Checkerboard tile floor. The walls are kind of the same ones that the post office has, but with the addition of tan tile layered on top of it to negate the “Russian High School” look. Two sinks with a fair amount of room for placement. Mirrors above each sink. Although I don’t think the pictures that I took convey it properly, the lighting is very gentle. The third stall has a Tork brand toilet paper holder (the sloped kind you can’t rest things on top of) as compared to the other two stalls which have the SCA flat top brand. The second stall and the third stall have a hook, but as previously mentioned, the first stall doesn’t have one.

For an acoustic note, there is a fan built into the wall of this bathroom. It’s above the toilet in the second stall. I like it, but I could understand if someone found noise it makes to annoying or creepy.

Stimson has some fun extras: four vending machines (two beverage and two snack) and a ping pong table. The ping pong table used to be a negative as I didn’t love having to walk past a bunch of people, but now that the table is in less constant use, there’s less people to deal with and it’s more of a neutral extra than anything.

Personally, due to nostalgia, and the fact that this bathroom has helped me out of a jam or two, I would give it a 10/10.

But I think I need to be a little bit more objective and say that for everyone else this bathroom is probably going to rate closer to an 8/10.

Neassa Hunt is a Senior at Goucher College with a major in Communications and a minor in Nothing. She is from White Plains, NY, and likes performing stand up comedy, running and hates deer. She moved to Shanghai when she was 15, and despite years of trying it’s still the most interesting thing about her. In another futile attempt to be more than her past she writes reviews of the bathrooms on campus.

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