There are a few estimates of how much time the average person spends in the bathroom. A British study found that people will spend one and half years of their lifetime on the porcelain throne. Interestingly enough, men spend more time on the actual toilet at an average of one hour and 45 minutes a week; women spend about two hours in the actual bathroom.

With a portion of your life being spent in the bathroom that is just unavoidable, how do Bakersfield College’s facilities stack up? As far as college students go, I am pretty sure that those times are increased for both sexes. Some may only see the restroom as a necessary place to relieve oneself, but sometimes a bathroom can have such a negative impact on your day that you can never wash your hands of the experience.

However, for the most part BC has sanitary facilities that are well maintained for the amount of “traffic” moving through them.

The bathrooms in the Industrial Technology wing offer a nice quiet experience for those of you that have some potty phobia. They are nice and clean too; not many people are using them and it is a less traversed area by students.

If nature calls and you can’t rush fast enough to the IT buildings, Math and Science have your butt covered. Point of note however, there are two sets of restrooms in MS. Avoid the cramped bottom level like dysentery, the upper level offer more roomy stalls and replete with toilet paper.

For those of you who spend most of your time in the Humanities wing there are plenty of options too. The bathroom in that building is quite clean most of the time, however a few times there was a monstrous overflow of paper towels and no T.P. to be found in multiple stalls. The real treasure of a commode is near the Humanities building is a hop to the east. The FACE building has single private, locking bathrooms that can be nice and serene if you need the extra privacy. The only draw back is the walk of shame after you exit the head, with waiting on-lookers left to linger in your -ahem- essence. To the south you also have the bathroom located in the Admissions and Records building. Building near the president’s office one would expect it to be immaculate. And it indeed is. The only trouble you might have is running into some administrators and again some potentially embarrassing moments.

Avoid the cafeteria and Campus Center bathrooms at all costs. They are hectic and always full of stinky dudes. If its lunch time, be prepared for the worst.

The creepiest men’s bathroom is located in the Science and Engineering building, across from rooms 52 and 53. It is separated with a wall; one side stalls and sinks, the other side urinals. It’s generally dark and who the hell knows what’s creeping about on the other side of the urinal section. I recommend again avoiding this bathroom, just out the sheer unknown that could be lurking.

Overall, BC’s bathrooms are kept nice and clean by our hard-working maintenance staff, especially considering there are about 10,000 selfish students using the throne at any given time.

The next time you absolutely have to go, remember this. BC’s bathrooms aren’t that horrible, there are much worse. Thank the people who keep them clean and do the job you don’t want to do. This isn’t your mother’s house, so clean up after yourself and make their jobs a little easier.