The EBL Dorm -- feature article for MEDA 110

For Doreen Mariz, a freshman BS Biology student, every morning is always a race to the bathroom. Armed with her blue pail and dipper, she wills herself to get up earlier than she usually does at home. "I have to get there first so I have enough water to use", she said. The finish line is not always a pretty sight to look at, however.

Who would have thought that my younger sister would experience the same dilemmas I had just to prepare for the day.

"It looks like any other public bathroom", she relates, "The only difference is that they do not have doodles on the walls, you have clothes hanging like bandiritas instead."

But is not all about the bandiritas that most students are concerned about. The first few lucky residents who get there in the morning are rewarded with ample amount of water and a fairly decent view of the dormitory in the morning. Scattered plastic wrappers, toilet papers, and - oh yes, sanitary napkins. Scattered artifacts and remains accentuate the dirty tiled floors of the Elias B. Lopez dormitory girls' bathroom. Every student here must have been greeted by such a sight.

Within that elusive appearance of the 25 million peso dormitory building, is what one student called "the proof that even UP students do not know how to use the bathroom properly".

Most facilities are either unnecessary or old and broken. Useless shower nozzles hang like dead branches in cubicles and are mostly used as clotheslines. Soap dishes are littered with empty soap and shampoo sachets, empty junk food wrappers and used pads. Cubicle doors barely hang from their hinges. Some have no doors at all. Lighting is bad as well. Sinks have long dried up because of lack of water. If it actually works, you have to turn it on through the pipe below the sink according to one resident. But the most horrid sight of all is the toilets. They overflow with familiar and some unidentifiable objects. Not to mention the stench that would greet every unsuspecting student.

"Some toilets are unserviceable. There is not enough water for flushing", complained a first year BS Food technology student named Aisha. Most female students I have interviewed expressed the same complaints. "Even if there is enough water, you still have to compete with other students in other cubicles for it.", she added.

Most students who have stayed in the dormitory opted to find other boarding houses nearby after their staying for a year in the EBL. Bianca chose to stay in a boarding house in Mintal because facilities there are much better. "Sometimes there are days when there is no water at all", the second year Architecture student complained.

There are others who chose to stay in the EBL for practical reasons. "I don't have to ride the habal-habal just to get there", said JB Tingzon, a third year Communication Arts student. "It's cheaper and nearer the school but we have to make do with the facilities here". JB, who cross-registered to Up Los Banos last semester, said that except for the additional signs posted on the walls, the dormitory girls' bathroom still looks the same. "They still make arinolas out of the toilet bowls", she continues, "I do not know if it is because there is no water or the students themselves are just lazy."

"The second floor bathroom at B-wing sometimes overflows with water from the students' morning rush to take a bath", JB confided. Unlike Doreen's statement above, JB commented that there are no sanitary napkins on the soap dishes anymore. But stray animals, mostly cats, can still get inside the building and excavate the trash cans, leaving the bathrooms even more unpleasant to look at.

"The weekends are even worse", she said. The janitors are usually away at that time." According to Quintina Calderon, a janitress in the dormitory, they usually get a lot of complaints from both the males and females on weekends. Calderon and most of the janitors usually work from 6 to 11 o'clock in the morning. She said that they could not possibly stand and guard the bathrooms just to keep them clean. They have to do the rest of the building besides dormitory.

"It is not our responsibility to keep everything squeaky clean", she commented on the complaints of the students," they come in here and use the toilets but never even bother to flush it. Even if there is plenty of water, they can't even make an effort to fetch." She added that they have to make time to clean the other rooms and facilities in the building including the ILC.

Calderon said the same opinions on the facilities but said that most of them still work. "It is only because of the people who do not know how to handle them that most fixtures become useless."

She added that the drainage is very complicated which is why sometimes the bathrooms become flooded with water. "Some students here do not turn off the faucets. Plus they come in here with their dirty shoes which makes our work even more difficult."

"I do not think that it is because of the janitors. You see proof that some residents here do not really know how to clean up what they leave behind", said Doreen as a conclusion to the interview. Most dormitory residents will say the same thing. Still, that does not solve anything and the showers still don't work.