CU Later Toilet Paper?

Rumors state that residence life will no longer offer toilet paper. 
Photo Courtesy of: chooseaninspiredlife.com

Toilet paper is an essential necessity for everyone. The students living at Concord in the dorms are no exception.  With budgets being cut around campus, is toilet paper the next to go? Director of Residence Life, William (Bill) Fraley, gives us insight on the issue.  

    Concerning the shortage of toilet paper in the dorms, Fraley said that he did not know the magnitude, but he did know there was, in fact, an issue. “We use to leave the toilet paper out in the lobbies for the students to come down and get whenever they wanted, [but] there were many off-campus students who were also coming in and taking the toilet paper with them,” Fraley states. 

    Resident assistant of North Tower, Kyra Cline, gives some insight as well. “I’ve heard of commuters coming to get toilet paper, but I’m not sure if it was 100 percent true or not.”  Rumors have been going around campus of non-residential students utilizing the free toilet paper. With these rumors circulating and the lack of toilet paper becoming a problem, there was a resolution developed to target the issue.  

    Fraley elaborated more on the solution to this problem. “What we’ve done is move those boxes [of toilet paper] into the offices, [but] it does limit the time that on campus students can get it,” he says. Fraley states that on-campus students will now have to plan a little ahead if they are running low on toilet paper because they are trying to save the dorms from running out so quickly.  

    The solution of keeping the toilet paper behind the desks with the residence assistants could affect them. When asked about the solution, Cline says, “The desk opens at 5:30 every morning. I don’t think it really is a problem to keep it with us. Most people get their toilet paper right before they completely run out.” In making this decision, Fraley said that he was not the one who procured this solution. He said that a residence director came up with the plan and he gave the go ahead. 

    The off-campus students taking advantage of the free toilet paper is not the only problem. Budget cuts also play a role.  Fraley explains that there is an allotted amount of money in the housing budget to purchase things like toilet paper.  He also says that instead of cutting the toilet paper completely, he is just trying to keep it from being wasted to save more room within the allotted budget. “Students who live on campus were the ones who paid for [toilet paper], not the ones who live off campus,” Fraley said.

    Cline added that she believes the solution is fair. “The toilet paper is for students paying for room and board and living in towers. It wouldn’t make any sense to leave it outside where off-campus students could pick it up,” she says. Cline says that the resident directors and the resident assistants have to be on the same page when issues arise, just like the issue of scarce toilet paper. 

    This solution seems to be a viable one and works for everyone. Fraley elaborates more on the issue explaining that on-campus students hoard toilet paper in their rooms. This also confirms the success of the solution. “[The on-campus students] would go every day and get arm-fulls. If we didn’t see them and we’d be in the room for a maintenance issue, [we’d] see that they had 30 rolls of toilet paper unopened,” he says.

Fraley said that there’s really nothing they could do other than to make people sign out and keep track of how much they get. He explains that they won’t go down that road and they will stick with keeping toilet paper behind the desks.

    As far as the issues such as this one arising, Fraley says, “If anybody has any issues or if they have any problems, they should let us know and we’ll be happy to address them and try to help work through them.” It’s safe to say that toilet paper will be around for the rest of the semester and the housing faculty will be there to assist wherever they can.