Last year, page editor Ian Benjamin, ’08, revealed the grotesque state of the boys bathroom to the community (“Bathrooms look, smell—well—horrendous,” Dec. 18, 2007).

“The problem lies with the students who abuse the bathroom, and for the situation to improve, they must start caring about how they treat school property,” Benjamin wrote.

Benjamin proposed that high-school boys would treat a new, remodeled bathroom with more care than the archaic, disheveled facility we currently have.

In the ensuing months, several changes were made in the bathrooms.

First, the paper towel racks were moved to the wall on top of the garbage can to make towel disposal much simpler. This move decreased the mess from paper towels shot like basketballs, and that improvement should carry over to this year (I’ll admit that I was a culprit and frequently shot paper towels into the garbage can. As soon as the towels were moved within proximity of the trash can, I stopped).

In addition, sturdier soap dispensers were added to the walls, a major change from the days when dispensers were often off the walls and non-functional.

And for most of last year, one of the stalls lacked a toilet paper dispenser, therefore making it unusable, but this was another change made to the bathrooms this summer.

But will these changes survive the first day of school?

During a varsity soccer practice in the gym before school started, a pile of used paper towels lay on the ground despite the proximity of the paper towel racks and the cans.

And aside from these changes, there are still faults with the boys’ bathroom that will only be fixed with a dramatic remodel that should have taken place this summer.

Water still piles up around the floor by the urinals, and no guy is comfortable using a urinal with a liquid substance on the ground in front of it.

Water also covers the area around the sink, making the sink unpleasant to use.

Compare this to the “granite sinks, Spanish tile flooring, stainless steel stalls and paper towel racks,” Benjamin described in the old lower school bathrooms while writing his article.

And with the upgrade to the new building, the lower school students now have the Ritz-Carlton of bathrooms while the high school is stuck with one that wouldn’t pass inspection at a Motel 6.

The theory in Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” is a possible solution. This book explains how little changes can have dramatic shifts in sociological behavior. The author continuously cites the different actions taken by New York City to drop the crime rate, such as immediately painting over graffiti on subway cars and making subways more aesthetically appealing. As a result, crime dropped.

The same philosophy can be applied to the boys’ bathroom. If the boys (and girls) were given completely remodeled facilities, there would be a great respect for these facilities.

It’s been eight years since the school redid the gym bathrooms, which are used not only by the high school but also by the visitors to the campus, occupants of the gym, and middle and lower school students on their way to P.E.

It’s time for our upgrade and a new bathroom is a great way to start!