Rachel Kirby walked out of the women's restroom in Weimer Hall 1080 with a sour look on her face.
The junior public relations major said she gagged at the smell of urine that invaded her nostrils when she entered the facility.
Kicking toilet paper out of her way and forcing stall doors closed are regular routines in campus bathrooms, which can be on the dirty side, Kirby said.
Derrick Bacon, head of building services and assistant director of the physical plant, said it is difficult maintaining bathrooms on campus because custodial employees are spread thin over a large area.
Of 450 custodians, whose jobs include cleaning bathrooms and maintaining parking garages, each has between 25,000 and 28,000 square feet of campus to maintain, Bacon said.
The restrooms are cleaned between 5:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, he said, but because of the high traffic on campus after 1:30 p.m., it is difficult to clean them.
Bacon said a custodian cannot mop a floor and hold up the bathroom for 20 minutes in the middle of the afternoon.
Custodians try to hit the most popular restrooms, like in Turlington Hall, three to four times during the given time spread, but cleaning the bathrooms more than four times a day is difficult to fit in their schedule, he said.
"Some of the bathrooms can be cleaned and then 30 minutes later, they are dirty again," he said. "It's pretty hard to keep up."
Despite a phone number listed in bathrooms, Bacon said few students call to make complaints.
He said he cannot confirm the actual number of calls, but he does not feel there are more than five per year regarding unsanitary conditions.
Pam Walker, the ombudsman for the physical plant division, said most calls are related to lack of products in the restrooms.
Building services always tries to improve the conditions of restrooms, putting up more soap and paper towel dispensers and stocking rooms with extra toilet paper, he said.
"We appreciate the calls because it alerts us of problems and allows us to respond immediately," she said.
But Walker, who receives the calls, said most students would rather complain about the mess.
"I'd rather squat over the toilet and deal with the smell than make the effort to call," Kirby agreed.
