“What Frustrates You at ECC?” reads the several posters hung up around Elgin Community College’s campus, asking students to let The Observer know what issues bother them. If you’ve emailed us, you are about to get your response; if not, tune in to what these students have to say.

One complaint The Observer received was regarding the women’s bathrooms on campus:

“They always smell like something is decomposing in each stall. Dirty. Pads everywhere. Pee on the floor.

S E N D. H E L P ”

– Anonymous Student

After further personal investigation of the issue, it was discovered that the specific bathroom mentioned was the women’s bathroom in building B, near the Testing Center. The Observer found it to be relatively clean after multiple visits, but did recognize it’s slight untidiness during high traffic hours, such as around 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.

After this inquiry, Custodian Supervisor Omar A. Dominguez had some light to shed on the issue.

“I take any complaints seriously, I [will] double up personally in which the areas of complaint are coming from to remedy the complaint and integrate the complaint into the job assignment,” Dominguez said.

All bathrooms around ECC receive quite a regular cleaning, according to Dominguez.

“All restrooms get a deep clean early Tuesday morning – early Saturday morning and once over during the weekend, while during the day they get policed,” Dominguez said.

“We have personal policing in the morning, after 2 p.m. the crew switches to more of a job assignment role. You can always contact the switchboard for any issues you have regarding the restrooms.”
When asked for a pro-tip about the best, cleanest bathrooms, Dominguez replied that generally the main floor restrooms get the heavy use in all buildings, so the 2nd and 3rd floor restrooms tend to be the cleaner of the buildings with less traffic.

To wrap up the interview, Dominguez praised ECC custodial staff.

“We have a great team of custodians, they form a part of the unsung heroes of ECC.”

So, if you’d like the five-star , Holy Grail bathroom experience and willing to take a short walk up a flight of stairs, try the upper levels of B.

Any custodial-related comments, questions, or complaints can be directed to Managing Director of Facilities Calvin Byrd at [email protected]