The Humanities and Social Sciences Building, whether for better or for worse, is certainly one of the most iconic landmarks of UTK. The McClung tower watches over the campus and the beautiful park surrounding the building acts as a delightful outdoor home. However, despite its iconic exterior, the inside of the building is quite ancient to put it simply, and not in the charming historical way. The smell is funky, the lights are finicky fluorescents, the windows are crunchy and some of the doors are broken. How is this allowed to slide? In general, the whole demeanor screams “1968.”
Nothing have aged so poorly as the HSS bathrooms. These monstrosities have to be a biohazard — there is no way that humans can be expected to exist within these horrendous halls of toiletries. Right now, the HSS restrooms lack privacy, are a disposal place for questionable items, are almost non-functional and are in desperate need of an extreme renovation.
So let’s set the stage here for a moment, and take a look at the common everyday of an English student’s bathroom experience. Jerome, let’s call him, enters the HSS building for his 9:45 AM class. About 20 minutes before, he has to use the restroom for whatever reason. Jerome here is a freshie, still learning the campus and all of its many secrets. He can’t find the men’s bathroom and ends up having to ask someone for directions; they tell him that the restrooms are at the end of every hallway. Jerome turns his head to the side, questioning why the architects decided this would be a good idea, before heading all the way over to the depths of the hallway.
Upon arriving, Jerome then notices the door to the restroom door is held wide open, and that anyone who glances in the bathroom’s general direction can see the urinals and stalls in plain sight. Reluctantly, Jerome steps inside, and immediately understands why the faculty keeps the door cracked open at all times. The smell is horrible, indescribably horrible. It’s not the scent of urine, that’s for sure, but does he want to know? Absolutely not.
Another thing he notices is that half the room is engulfed in shadows, as the lights in one corner are entirely broken, causing it to look as if a demon has taken refuge in the furthermost stall, cursing this place to an eternal fate of olfactory agony. Disgusted, Jerome really can’t wait, so he finds an alcove of urinals, the only toilets not directly visible from the door.
However, finding a clean one is nigh impossible, as it seems the past visitors had decided to use these things as trashcans for all sorts of garbage, ranging from something simple like gum to far more diabolical items. Reluctantly, Jerome finishes his business before finalizing his journey at the sink. Surely there can’t be anything wrong with the sinks, right? They’re the universal place of cleanliness. However, despite waving his hand under it, the faucet remains dormant. Jerome, confused, tries another faucet, yet it’s as quiet as a mouse. He tries the next faucet, then the one after that, but nothing. Finally, one turns on. Surprisingly, the water comes out normal, and Jerome is able to wash his hands peacefully with no mysterious substance or item in the way.
All he needs to do now is just dry his hands with the paper towel and he’ll be good to go, but as Jerome begins to pull the paper towels, he accidentally pulls some sort of bag out. Is this a part of the dispenser, or is this something else, something more diabolical? Not wanting to know what the sealed plastic bag is for, Jerome tosses it in the trash, washes his hands once more for good measure, because who knows where that bag has been, then finally exits the restroom, vowing never to visit again. While Jerome’s events sound fictional, it’s not, as that genuinely was my first experience with the HSS bathrooms.
The HSS restrooms as they are right now are just near dysfunctional. Many of the sinks do not work, the broken lights create an ominous atmosphere, the tiles are old and there is a general lack of ventilation. In general, it just seems like it’s time for the University of Tennessee to invest in some HSS renovations, especially for the bathrooms.
The most basic change they could do is place the women’s and men’s restrooms adjacent to each other. This tiny change would allow for more immediate accessibility from the stairwell, preventing students from needing to walk the entire hallway just to find the restroom. Another thing would be to change up the interior, first by removing the door and redesigning the entrance to be the common wind-around entrance found in most public restrooms. Though, if the door is kept, then swapping the urinals and the sinks would make the most sense, so if someone were to look inside, they would see sinks rather than people doing their business.
Next, fix the lighting to make sure it doesn’t look like a gateway to the underworld and make sure those sinks are fixed too. Of course, the whole bathroom needs new stalls, a repaint and retiling, because everything in there is so old and nasty that a new coat of paint would go a long way. Finally, common routine cleanings would do wonders, as the bathrooms are absolutely filthy and filled to the brim with garbage in places where they should not be.
These fixes would drastically improve the restrooms, making them more pleasant and preventing people from wanting to dash out due to the diabolical conditions and putrid scents. The functional lighting and sinks would also prevent the place from emanating this terrifying back alley feel. Therefore, preventing people from partaking in whatever shady shenanigans they plan on doing.
It’s strange that despite many of the bathrooms on campus being quite nice, that the HSS building would suffer such a horrible fate. However, based on HSS’ current state, it is safe to say that this issue is simply due to age and lack of renovation. Unfortunately, the bathrooms are suffering and it is certainly time for a remodeling. Since subjecting students to those bathrooms is cruel.
Despite being in desperate need of change, there seems to be no renovations planned in the near future, so it seems like everyone is stuck with these hellish bathrooms for the time being. However, if in the new future there is a possibility to advocate for a bathroom renovation, do not hesitate in participating.
Sebastian Reyna is a Junior at UT this year studying theater and English. He can be reached at [email protected].
Columns and letters of The Daily Beacon are the views of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or the Beacon’s editorial staff.
