10 of the Best and Worst Bathrooms at Cal Poly

Making Forbes’ Top 25 Public Colleges, placing within the top 50 Public Universities according to Niche, and even being named ‘Best In the West’ for 33 straight years, it’s no doubt that Cal Poly SLO is a well known and loved university. However, coming from a fourth-year student, there are definitely some aspects about a college that you just don’t see unless you’re spending the majority of your days on the campus. Now, as an undergraduate student, running across campus in those 10 minutes of ‘Poly-time’ before your next class starts, the last thing you want to think about is what nasty stall you’re going to have to ‘drop some knowledge’ in, if you know what I mean…

Without further adieu, here’s a list, based on my personal experience, of the best and worst bathrooms on Cal Poly SLO’s campus to do your business.

The Best Bathrooms on Campus are the Best Kept Secrets…

Engineering IV, 2nd Floor Single-Stall Bathroom

Located near the professor offices near the eastern building exit, this single-stalled bathroom is reliably the cleanest and least busy bathroom I’ve ever used on campus. With a lock you can trust, this bathroom is sandwiched between professor’s offices and one classroom, decreasing the amount of students that could hear you answering nature’s call.

Engineering IV, 2nd Floor Gender Neutral Stalls

The gender neutral stalls are stationed away from most classrooms on the floor and in a very long configuration; because of this, and the way the stall doors all swing shut—no matter if they’re in use or not—there’s lots of assumed privacy. This bathroom always has the vibe that it’s both busy and empty at the same time, which urges people to quickly do their business and then leave, fairly quickly. With the plentiful amount of stalls, I’ve never seen a line form, so there’s no one to hang around and listen to you.

Frost, 2nd Floor Stalls

Although this bathroom isn’t gender neutral (boo!) and somewhat small, I find that it is usually very clean and not very busy, as it’s located just to the side of the entrance to the building, around the corner from the elevator. Plus, this newer building ensured great lighting and a super wide mirror that spreads the length of the sinks, as well as a large window to allow for natural lighting; talk about a bathroom selfie!

UU 2nd Floor Stalls

Yes, it’s a maze in there, but there are tons of stalls and it’s not usually very busy! There’s an accessible stall in there and even a lactation room with a private door. Plus, with KCPR Radio playing, the DJ’s are the only ones doing the talking and you’re free to pop a squat to the newest Indie cover they put on the radio.

Worst: Avoid These Bathrooms At ALL COSTS, If You Can!

Building 52 Women’s Bathroom

For such a large and awkwardly shaped building, Building 52 only has 1 bathroom per sex, and the Women’s is always busy! I kid you not: I have had to wait in a line every single time I’ve needed to use this bathroom. From the very beginning, it’s a nightmare; The door is insanely hard to open–I really doubt it is ADA accessible. If you do eventually go in, you’ll have to maneuver around the obscenely large trash can placed in front of the doorway. Plus, this bathroom is never clean, often smelly, and more often than not, has run out of soap! Oh, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out—seriously, it will if you’re not careful.

UU 1st Floor Gender Neutral Bathrooms

If you’re looking to take a sh*t in the most overstimulating conditions humanly possible to endure, this is the bathroom for you. Located just across the hall from the always-bustling UU-Starbucks, this bathroom always has some sort of liquid covering the toilet seats and floor and is never stocked on paper towels. Though the floor-to-ceiling stalls and coffee-machinery sounds give you some privacy, it’s better just to avoid this bathroom, all around.

English Building, 2nd Floor Single Stall

As an English major, I’ve come to terms with having to share a building with the Agriculture students, but to only have one Women’s bathroom per floor on that side of the building… unacceptable! Especially when that bathroom is a single stall with lousy plumbing and occasionally open windows on the ground floor. Sure, you can tune out the mysterious thumping coming from within the walls, but the countless knocks on the frosted glass window on the door from other students that need to pee just doesn’t make for the ideal environment when you’ve gotta go.

Cotchett Education Building, Main Floor Women’s bathroom

This is the most oddly configured bathroom I’ve ever seen. If you enter the building from Dexter lawn, you’ll see the door with residual markings from a women’s circle sign. The unmarked door in the middle of the hallway leads to a small room with a sink and trashcan, and only after opening another door past that will you see 2 stalls in the closest proximity you’ll ever see. There’s nothing like a door separating 2 toilets from one sink to make you feel like you’ve got a real bathroom buddy.

1901 Women’s Bathroom

What is that smell?! I swear, this bathroom always has a line, is never stocked on toilet paper or paper towels and somehow always reeks of both 1901 food and something ungodly. I’d rather head across to the UU 1st Floor Gender Neutral Bathrooms, personally.

Graphic Arts 1st Floor Women’s Bathroom

Why are there, like, no bathrooms in this building? And the one bathroom on the first floor has, you guessed it: ONE stall! It’s not that I mind there only being one toilet, but confining the toilet within a stall turns the rest of the space with the sink into a waiting room. This is not optimal for those looking for some privacy.

We’ve all got to do our business, and it’s up to you to choose where you want to do it, but hopefully now you know which bathrooms you can rely on and which to to avoid at all costs.

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