To find the condensed version and Volume 1, check out The Tartan! https://rutartan.com/

In 2024, Radford students were made aware of the highs and lows of the Radford University restrooms across several on-campus locations. This year, we’re bringing it back, because with no renovations and increase in student population, these toilets are getting more use. As stated in the last volume, the Radford restrooms are a place to “reprieve and release” but let’s see if these bathrooms can be held up to those standards. The ranking of these 10 bathrooms will be based primarily on the aesthetic, cleanliness, smell, and capacity between male, female, and all gender bathrooms. The sample restrooms were chosen based on closest proximity to the first entrance because the number of restrooms is greater than the limit of my bladder. 

Kyle Hall:

3/5 Stars. In a place where business majors feel on top of the world, the bathroom was not what I had expected to feel like to do my own dirty business. Not a very private place, with the doors open on arrival. The bathroom was quite tight and shaped diagonally, maybe like a stock rise on a graph feel? The green walls, colored tile floors and windows set it apart from other more lazy restrooms. The men’s bathroom stalls had rectangular-shaped cutouts on the bottom wall. Maybe to play Jenga with the neighbor, not quite sure? The women’s bathroom had 3 stalls, with the middle one being locked from the inside, missing the handle.

Hemphill Hall:

3/5 Stars. Skipping past the Starbucks bathrooms because the consensus is that they are awful, we ventured down the long halls to find the narrow, hidden, bathrooms. What’s horrific about these bathrooms is how narrow they are, their pure length, and how much missed opportunity there is. The men’s restroom wall on one side looks about as empty as my research essay. Could definitely use more décor or toilets. Very clean though. The women’s room has many complaints of creaky doors that don’t close all the way.

Waldron Wall:

5/5 Stars. Easiest 5-star rating of my life. The bathroom stalls are very nice and painted in bricky maroon. Everything was clean and stocked super well. These bathrooms are very welcoming to the guests sitting in the lobby, even including little step stools for the child patients to wash their hands at the sink. The women’s room even had flowers! While they had paper towel dispensers already, they even included extra tabletop paper towel dispensers with the thickest and softest paper I’ve ever felt on campus. Very high review for the first bathroom we made an appointment for.

Artis Hall:

5/5 Stars. Another stellar bathroom. As I would have assumed from the arts building, the stalls included some color and even an LED lit mirror in the ladies’ room. I must admit, the men’s room was very tight and only had two stalls and no urinals, however what really carries Artis’s restrooms are the all-gender ones. I was excited to revisit my comfort bathroom in Artis because, as I remember, it was spacious, clean, smelled great, and felt very personal. Like I could find myself and get into deep creative thoughts in there. Not to break the rules, but I also heard mention of a shower in a bathroom, and I found it, so it gave bonus points.

The Bonnie:

3/5 Stars. This is by far the most used and common restroom, even needing to allow people in and out before conducting our investigation. Most of the urinals and stalls were unflushed, and full of the hand drying paper towels for some reason. What the Bonnie makes up for in dirtiness is capacity, having the most toilets in a bathroom we had seen. Plenty of room for students to take refuge when the Chick-fil-a lines lead out into Hissho Sushi and Student Choice. 

Dalton Dining Hall:

1/5 Stars. If the strong scent of chemicalized oranges didn’t knock you out, then maybe the dingy yellow lights can blind you. By far the worst bathroom I had seen. Apparently, the women’s restroom wasn’t so bad and had many stalls, however I can not allow this rating to witness a number greater than 1 after my sight. Bathrooms could have been cleaner but surprisingly stocked well. As I made my way down each stall, I found myself at the crime scene of another Dalton Dining smore’s pizza victim, as there was blood in the toilet. Disgusting.

Peters Hall:

3/5 Stars. Peters Hall bathrooms provided nothing too special or noteworthy, as they felt like an average school bathroom. Surprisingly they had a larger capacity of toilets and sinks than expected and all the sinks felt individualized to the users, with separate mirrors per sink. However, I would not recommend the urinals for short guys as the 1 shorter urinal is placed in the middle of the 2 taller ones, so it may get intense if the bro code is broken.

Curie/Reed Hall:

4/5 Stars. These restrooms are very modern and overall look very pleasant, both in aesthetic and cleanliness. I believe the inventors of this restroom tried to create an experiment to see who is willing to walk further for paper towels, as that is the major problem we encountered. The paper towel dispensers are on the farthest side of the counter, instead of by the doorway. We also found a lot of paper towels on the floor, so maybe some kind of result in frustration.

Cook Hall:

2/5 Stars. Truthfully went in with low expectations, and those expectations were met in the opposite way we had imagined. With the Esports center close by, we had anticipated an odor around the men’s restroom, but the inside actually smelt okay. The entry was like stepping into a walk-in closet then into the blue bathroom. Besides some obvious trash on the floor, it was pretty tame for a bathroom. However, the women’s room was reported to have an atrocious odor. It was said that it lacked toilet paper, paper towels, and clean, empty toilets. 

Young Hall:

3/5 Stars. Another night and day experience between male and female bathrooms. The women’s restroom took a new approach, having stalls on both walls, creating a hallway of porcelain thrones to claim. Very clean and very bright were the descriptions reported. The men’s side however was quite different. Only 1 stall and urinal with a dull green design on the sink counter. There was a giant window in the stall that was completely opaque, ruining a view you would get at the University Bridge. You are also locked at a 72-degree Fahrenheit thermostat in the room.

We did the dirty work for you. And don’t worry, we washed our hands.

Edited and Reviewed by Kien Powell