Carleton completed numerous construction projects across campus this summer, building and renovating residential spaces and streamlining campus health services. Students can now make cookies in the renovated Dacie Moses house, get a nose job at the new SHAC, or even spend time in M*sser. However, women still cannot use the bathroom in Leighton.
Has anyone noticed this? Three stalls for three floors? In between classes, particularly 3a and 4a, the second (technically third) floor women’s bathroom in Leighton is like a mosh pit. The problem is no one’s fault, really. Leighton Hall of Chemistry, now confusingly home to humanities studies, was constructed in 1920, when no one really thought women could or should do chemistry (or anything, honestly). Today, in addition to the startling lack of electrical outlets in the walls and the suspicious green organism growing in the water bottle filling station, there are two women’s bathrooms in the whole building, but one of them is in the basement, which I didn’t know existed until my OCS appointment two weeks ago.
Luckily, the Carleton administration came to the rescue. Rather than adding a few stalls to the second-floor bathroom or a bathroom to the first or third floor, they decided to follow Leighton’s historical tradition, announcing plans to construct an early 20th-century era outhouse behind the building. Complete with a thatched roof and no electricity or running water, the administration hopes that the single dank stall, combined with stagnant water trough, will help alleviate the pressure on Leighton’s second floor bathroom. Individuals can then fill up their water bottles at the manual antique water pump outside.
Humanities students such as Susan B. Anthony ‘26 says that they are “honestly chill” with the new addition, which they say isn’t too bad compared to the “literal 3 foot wide” and dimly lit second floor bathroom. Elizabeth C. Stanton ‘27 reported that the Religion department even put a basket of “those little red apple lollipop things,” some tea, and a water kettle in there to make it cozy.
When asked for comment, admin commented that adding space to the existing second floor restroom is currently a long way down on their construction priorities, following combining all buildings on campus into one big Anderson, adding a finance bro center to Willis, and making the Watson walls even thinner.
