Residence hall bathroom inspections were carried out last week, according to Housing Director Mark Dougherty.

According to Dougherty, a fine will be charged to students sharing a bathroom that fails the inspection in the future.

“For this first inspection, occurring now, we are not fining for failed inspections.  However, for future inspections, a failure will result in a fine being assessed to all the students who share that bathroom.”

Dougherty said the fine will be $25 for each person responsible for a failed inspection.

Dougherty said future inspections will be announced ahead of time.

“Notification will be left with residents only if a bathroom fails inspection. In this instance, the RAs (resident assistants) will leave a copy of the inspection form with the residents of the room, or rooms if the bathroom is shared.”

Dougherty also explained why the inspections are necessary.

“The bathroom-cleaning policy was put into effect in an effort to increase the consistency and quality of bathroom cleaning in the residence facilities.”

According to Dougherty, students are responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms. He said the inspection is for a minority of students who don’t clean their bathrooms regularly.

“This is apparent both through visual inspection and an analysis of the amount of time it takes custodial staff to clean these neglected bathrooms,” he said.

“Often they are having to spend three or four times as long to clean a bathroom that has been neglected throughout the year as opposed to one that has been cleaned regularly,” said Dougherty.

He said last week the results of the first inspections were not all available since the inspections were still being completed.

“However, based upon the results that have been submitted so far, most bathrooms are passing inspections.”

Dougherty also offered some suggestions in cleaning the bathrooms.

“To effectively clean the bathroom, residents should use an all-purpose cleaner with disinfectant.”

He said cloths, sponges, toilet brush along with glass cleaner, appropriate cleaning gloves are encouraged too.

It seems students had been notified of the inspection and the program has had an effect in urging students to clean their bathrooms.

Junior Abby King said she got an email informing her the inspection last week. Two resident assistants checked for her bathroom Oct.7.

“They just walked in for like five seconds and they said it was fine.”

Junior Zhunheng Wang said his roommate told him about the inspection and they cleaned up their bathroom last weekend to make sure it passed the inspection.