From December 6 through December 8, the academic wing urinals and toilets bathrooms at Mount Greylock were closed due to a clog, causing many students to have to either wait in long lines for the single stall restroom or make the trek to another area of the building. Causes of the clog are still unknown and possible long-term solutions remain unclear. 

Being able to use the bathroom is a right that many students have come to expect, but these widespread closures make it much more difficult. 

The reason the closure affected all three floors, said Principal Jake Shutz, is that “all those bathrooms are connected because they’re on top of one another.” Plumbers immediately began trying to fix the issue, but none of the bathrooms in that stack could be used during the maintenance due to their shared pipe.

Shutz pointed to design error, broken components, or misuse as possible causes, but said the bathrooms have “a pretty high capacity,” making simple overuse issues unlikely. As of right now, the course of action could involve “some signage, [and] maybe some conversations with students.”

In past years, clogs have occurred due to students flushing certain items down the toilets, including utensils and food.

This time around, Shutz said he doesn’t “know if it’s student misuse” and is “open to suggestions.” If it does turn out to be student misuse, Shutz said the response would be important “because it just makes it a hassle for everyone to use the bathroom here.”

Looking to the future, we could expect to see more of these types of shutdowns if problems continue without a clear solution. Nonetheless, the issue has been resolved and the academic wing urinals and toilets are back to being operational.