We’ve all seen those people. The ones who saunter out of the bathroom stall and pull at the main door’s knob without ever stopping at the sink. Maybe you are one of those people. If so, I don’t want to know about it.

Point is, getting around a bathroom can be difficult once you realize how nasty everything in there really is. According to an article from the Associated Press, about 12 percent of women and 33 percent of men don’t bother to wash their hands after they use the rest room. There are approximately 11,000 female and 14,000 male students on Iowa State’s campus right now. Statistically, 1,320 of those women and 4,620 of those men aren’t washing their hands as they go from Central Campus to the bathroom in the Memorial Union to the food court. Would you like a plate and some salmonella with that burrito?

But this isn’t a lecture on hand washing. You’ve heard that before — since kindergarten, probably. If you’re not already a hand washer, you’re not likely to change your ways. So bathroom design is what needs to pick up the slack. There are certain things every bathroom needs to have. And I, of course, have a list. But we’ll get to that later.

First, let’s talk about stall doors. Most open inward toward the toilet so that you practically have to sit down just to get in and get the door closed behind you. Then, when you need out, you have to press against the toilet again to get the door open. Stall doors should open in an outward direction, or stalls need to be slightly bigger so you don’t have to rub yourself against other people’s germs. Also — hooks, people, hooks. Men may not be so concerned, but I’m sure as heck not putting my purse on any public rest room’s floor.

Automatic is good. Automatic toilets and urinals, sinks, paper towel dispensers, doors — all are good. In an effort to go green, some rest rooms have gotten rid of paper towels all together. Not a problem if everything is properly automatic and/or the main door swings without a handle. Yes, a problem if you think I’m going to wash and dry my hands just to get them dirty again when I touch the door. Non-automatic doors, at the very least, need paper towels. And a trash can nearby in which to throw them. Otherwise, they’re going to get thrown on the floor, which can’t make the janitor too happy, and doesn’t add to the overall cleanliness of the rest room.

And now, the list. I, along with my friend Peter Anderson, senior in advertising, visited four different bathrooms around campus and Ames to see how they checked out in overall amenity design. Answer: not very well. But see for yourself. There’s a cumulative score for the amenities as well as a separate cleanliness score. Overall is out of 10, cleanliness is out of five.

Friley public bathroom – next to lab

Women’s

Doors swing the right way:

    Stall (0)

    Main (.5)

Automatic:

    Toilets (0)

    Sinks (0)

    Doors (0)

    Paper-towel dispensers (1)

    Blow dryer (0)

Trash can by door? (0)

Hook on inside of stall door? (0)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 1.5

Cleanliness = 2

Men’s

Doors swing right way:

    Stall (1)

    Main (.5)

Automatic:

    Toilets (0)

    Sinks (0)

    Doors (0)

    Paper-towel dispensers (0)

    Blow dryer (1)

Trash can by door? (0)

Hook on inside of stall door? (1)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 3.5

Cleanliness = 3

Memorial Union – second floor bathroom

Women’s

Doors swing right way:

    Stall (.5)

    Main (1)

Automatic:

    Toilets (1)

    Sinks (1)

    Doors (0)

    Paper-towel dispensers (0)

    Blow dryer (0)

Trash can by door? (0)

Hook on inside of stall door? (1)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 4.5

Cleanliness = 3.5

Men’s

Doors swing right way:

    Stall (0)

    Main (.5)

Automatic:

    Toilets (.5) Urinals are automatic — stalls are not

    Sinks (0)

    Doors (0)

    Paper-towel dispensers (0)

    Blow dryer (0)

Trash can by door? (1)

Hook on inside of stall door? (1)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 3

Cleanliness = 4

East HyVee

Women’s

Doors swing right way:

    Stall (1)

    Main (0)

Automatic:

    Toilets (1)

    Sinks (0)

    Doors (0)

    Paper-towel dispensers (0)

    Blow dryer (0)

Trash can by door? (0)

Hook on inside of stall door? (1)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 3

Cleanliness=2

Men’s

Doors swing right way:

    Stall (1)

    Main (.5)

Automatic:

    Toilets (1)

    Sinks (0)

    Doors (0)

    Paper-towel dispensers (0)

    Blow dryer (0)

Trash can by door? (1)

Hook on inside of stall door? (0)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 3.5

Cleanliness = 2

Hickory Park

Women’s

Doors swing right way:

        Stall (1)

        Main (N/A)

Automatic:

        Toilets (1)

        Sinks (1)

        Doors (1)

        Paper-towel dispensers (0)

        Blow dryer (1)

Trash can by door? (0)

Hook on inside of stall door? (1)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 7

Cleanliness = 5

Men’s

Doors swing right way:

    Stall (1)

    Main (N/A)

Automatic:

    Toilets (1)

    Sinks (1)

    Doors (1)

    Paper-towel dispensers (0)

    Blow dryer (1)

Trash can by door? (1)

Hook on inside of stall door? (1)

Toilet seat covers? (0)

Score = 8

Cleanliness = 5

Bathrooms can say a lot about a place or a business. And it looks like if you’re searching for a well-designed, likely “germ-freer” public bathroom, you should think about Hickory Park. Not Friley or East HyVee.

 — Bailey Lewis is a senior in English from Indianola.

Intrigued? Want to learn more and further your quest for the most thorough bathroom information?

Check out this MSNBC article to learn about the bathroom hygiene gender gap: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20823288

Check out Bathroom Blogfest at bathroomblogfest.blogspot.com. If you think this column is excessive when it comes to bathroom investigations, you haven’t seen anything yet.