Rockhurst, like all schools, is a place of many bathrooms. Students are at school for most of their waking hours and put in hard, tiring work in and out of the classroom. With this being said, it would make sense for there to be plenty of spaces around the school that allow students comfortable experiences to take care of their business. In the main Rockhurst building, there are 11 bathrooms accessible for students to use. With the new school year fresh underway, we have compiled a ranking of the bathrooms here at the Rock from worst to best to help you know where you’ll get the best experiences and places that you should never ever go–unless you can’t help it.
To determine the ranking, bathrooms are scored on a scale of 0-40. This scale is made up of four categories: cleanliness, accessibility, privacy and amenities. Each of those categories accounts for 25% of the total score.
Here is a breakdown of each of the four categories:
- Cleanliness is a judgment of how messy a bathroom gets over the course of an average school day based on student use.
- Accessibility is a measure of how easy a bathroom is to reach. For example, students will more often pass by the Barry Commons bathroom than the Maker Space bathroom.
- Privacy is a measure of how disrupted you get while using a bathroom (a higher score means you can expect more privacy and less interruptions).
- Amenities is a measure of what is available to you in a bathroom. For example, toilet paper, soap or other basic bathroom needs.
Without further ado, the definitive ranking of Rockhurst student bathrooms:
11. Away team locker room
Cleanliness: 2
Accessibility: 4
Privacy: 6
Amenities: 2
Total: 14
Hidden away in the away team locker room, this bathroom is a scary stop. With exposed pipes on the ceiling and strange stains on the floor, this bathroom often scares people away at the sheer sight. Upon further inspection of the bathroom, the Prep News team discovered a void of toilet paper in both stalls and no mirrors on the wall. On top of this, with the cross country team using the showers in the bathroom after morning practices, this bathroom is often left with a damp stink.
“Being connected to all those showers is just a major hit to this bathroom. I try to avoid this one as much as I can,” senior Henry Acorn said.
This bathroom undoubtedly puts the rank in the ranking. No student should ever choose this bathroom unless they are left in a life or death urgent bathroom situation. A fan least favorite, this bathroom falls to the dead last spot of the list.
10. Maker Space
Cleanliness: 3
Accessibility: 3
Privacy: 7
Amenities: 7
Total: 20
Home to the Prep News and other media students, the Maker Space bathroom does not give students the bathroom experience they deserve. The Maker Space bathroom is unclean, unkept, and generally a negative experience. The door is heavy and often difficult to open, pushing students away before they even come in. The bathroom is just generally cramped and uncomfortable to be in.
“It always feels like the Maker Space bathroom is under construction or something,” senior Cal Hughes said. “It’s just kinda stinky in there.”
The only things this bathroom really has going for it is the dividers between the urinals and the privacy. Not many bathrooms feature dividers, so their presence scores big points. The privacy is a given with the location of the school, since only a few classes use it during any given period. On top of all of this, teachers in the Maker Space only allow one student in the bathroom at a time, sometimes increasing weight times but always ensuring you have enough space for a solo bathroom adventure.
9. Home Locker Room 
Cleanliness: 6
Accessibility: 4
Privacy: 7
Amenities: 6
Total: 23
Lackluster. This bathroom is just quite frankly lackluster. With the popularity of sports at Rockhurst, you would think that athlete bathrooms would be held to a higher standard than others. This, however, is not the case. The home locker room bathroom is unclean and has disturbing, sometimes leaky pipes running exposed across the ceiling. On top of all this, the locker room is out of the way so there is very rarely a time students would use this bathroom during the school day. Disappointingly, the home locker team falls at the nine spot of this list.
8. First floor, English rooms 
Cleanliness: 5
Accessibility: 9
Privacy: 3
Amenities: 6
Total: 23
Another very standard Rockhurst bathroom, the first floor English wing bathroom is nothing special. With no special or desirable amenities and high traffic, this bathroom is just kind of lame. Upon inspection of the bathroom, the Prep News team found a bucket sitting under the sink. While this bucket is probably necessary, the sight of the bucket just quite frankly leaves you a little uncomfortable and like you are lowering your self-worth by opting for this bathroom over walking to a much nicer one. The only reason this bathroom doesn’t fall lower on the list is due to the fact that almost everyone passes by this bathroom quite often. This is a gift and curse, however, as the traffic often leaves the bathroom highly unclean. This lackluster bathroom earns a sad eight spot on the list.
7. McGee Hall 
Cleanliness: 6
Accessibility: 4
Privacy: 9
Amenities: 7
Total: 24
An often forgotten bathroom, the McGee Hall bathroom is a hidden gem, of sorts. Definitely on the nicer side of Rockhurst bathrooms, due to the low traffic, this bathroom is typically left very clean. Also due to the traffic, you are often left in this large bathroom all by yourself. There are a few major drawbacks to this bathroom, however. Mainly, this bathroom is out of most people’s way. There are very select classes that leave this bathroom as the most desirable option in terms of proximity. Second, there are only two urinals and one stall in this bathroom, leaving minimal space on the off chance this bathroom does get crowded. And finally, possibly just a personal opinion, but the cinder block walls and odd tile floors make this bathroom feel more uncomfortable than others. Through heated debates and conversations, the McGee Hall bathroom ultimately landed at No. 7.
6. Second floor, north wing bathroom 
Cleanliness: 6
Accessibility: 7
Privacy: 5
Amenities: 7
Total: 25
One of the more standard Rockhurst bathrooms, the second floor bathroom in the north wing is always a reliable pick. When you go to this bathroom, you aren’t expecting anything special. There are three very basic stalls and a few urinals. This bathroom is purely for a quick stop, never a serene and memorable bathroom experience. Due to its high accessibility and just all around solid features, this bathroom deserves a spot right in the middle of the list.
5. Weight Room
Cleanliness: 5
Accessibility: 5
Privacy: 9.5
Amenities: 7
Total: 26.5
For most people, going to a public bathroom that you have to share with many of your Rockhurst brothers at the same time is not desirable. Lucky for these people, there is one bathroom that lets you have the entire room to yourself: the weight room bathroom. Fairly clean and spacious, this bathroom is always a safe go-to. Keeping this bathroom from being higher on the list are two major drawbacks. First, the weight room location is out of the way for most students. Unless you are in a P.E class or have practice in the Loyola Gym, you will often not make the hike out to this bathroom. Second, the personal bathroom feature of this bathroom is known to be stripped away by the common failure of the lock on the door. Often, you are caught in a compromising position in a highly uncomfortable experience with a classmate. For these reasons, the weight room bathroom is left barely scraping the top five.
4. Second floor lunchroom 
Cleanliness: 8
Accessibility: 9
Privacy: 5
Amenities: 5
Total: 27
A fan favorite, this bathroom is located in an area that all students visit, the lunchroom. With two large stalls and a plethora of urinals, this bathroom gets the job done just fine. There is almost always an available urinal, and, though, the spacing between them is not optimal, it is more comfortable than most other bathrooms at the Rock. The large stalls draw a lot of attention to the bathroom so sometimes wait times for a stall can be longer than other bathrooms, but the large space you are waiting for is well worth it. Keeping this bathroom from being perfect is one big flaw: there is no water fountain nearby.
“When I’m in the 220 rooms, I have a mile walk to the water fountains. It’s honestly ridiculous,” senior Brody Finnigan said. “When you have to fill up your water bottle and stop by the bathroom, I’d rather just opt for the other second floor bathroom that’s by the water fountain.”
Due to this major negative, the lunchroom bathroom falls just short of making the top three.
3. Third floor science rooms 
Cleanliness: 4
Accessibility: 8
Privacy: 8
Amenities: 7
Total: 27
While not the nicest or cleanest bathroom, the third floor science rooms bathroom is a truly incredible bathroom. Boasting the most stalls of any bathroom in the main building, a whopping five, this bathroom is a privacy safe haven. With low traffic, you can almost always get straight into your own personal stall. Not only are the stalls always available, but they also provide a quiet, peaceful experience, and also have a seemingly dimmed light, making them feel as comfortable as a nice bathroom. The stalls alone make this bathroom deserving of a high spot on the list, but it has many other draws. While not being as clean as other bathrooms, this bathroom is the most clean out of the three bathrooms near the main staircase in the north wing. This bathroom is highly accessible and is in a location that gets a lot of traffic so it is very frequently used by all. A true blessing at Rockhurst, the third floor science rooms bathroom truly deserves a top three spot on this list.
2. Barry Commons 
Cleanliness: 8
Accessibility: 7
Privacy: 8
Amenities: 8
Total: 31
Located in one of the central locations of the school, the Barry Commons bathroom is a student’s safe haven. With 3 stalls, each feeling large and secluded, students can always count on a pleasant experience from this bathroom. One of its biggest draws is the famous and sought after dividers between the urinals. This is a feature many think should be implemented across all Rockhurst bathrooms. Another great feature of this bathroom is the near perfect condition of the bathroom, feeling clean and new just about every day. Truly an incredible bathroom, the Barry Commons bathroom is well deserving of the two-spot.
1. Math hub 
Cleanliness: 7
Accessibility: 7
Privacy: 9
Amenities: 9
Total: 32
Easily one of the most popular bathrooms at the Rock, this gem of a bathroom is the gold standard for Rockhurst bathrooms. One of the biggest draws to this bathroom is the large corner handicap stall, leaving users with plenty of space and privacy to take care of business.
“That corner stall is just huge,” senior Michael Schaefer said. “I mean, you could fit like 50 dudes in there if you wanted to.”
To the left of the handicap stall are two smaller stalls, and along the the wall are a plethora of urinals to choose from. The main drawbacks to this bathroom are the traffic and cleanliness. With people rushing to this bathroom every chance they get, there is often a long wait time for the stalls and urinals, and with the lack of dividers in the urinals, you are often left with an unwanted close-quarters experience with one of your fellow Rockhurst brothers. This traffic also brings forward an issue of cleanliness, with puddles along the floor and toilet paper and paper towels scattered throughout the bathroom. Despite this minor inconvenience, the Math Hub bathroom is the definitive best bathroom at Rockhurst.
Honorable Mentions:
The Hawklet Center Bathrooms:
The bathrooms are some of the nicest bathrooms on the Rockhurst campus. They are always clean, spacious and an overall pleasant place to be. Putting these on the list would give these bathrooms an unfair advantage, and we do not believe they would truly reflect the “Best Rockhurst Bathrooms” as they are rarely used by students in their school day.
Stadium Bathrooms:
The stadium bathrooms are less for the students and more for sports fans who come to watch the many events that take place at the stadium. Similarly to the Hawklet Center, we do not believe these bathrooms should be counted with the main building bathrooms as they are very rarely used by students during the school day. These bathrooms are quite large and private with their main drawback being the cleanliness and business during games. These are great bathrooms of the Rock and they really put our best foot forward when visitors come to the stadium.
Hidden bathrooms not available for student use:
There are many bathrooms at the Rock that students may never get a glimpse of. Members of the Prep News team were able to gain special access to some of these bathrooms.
Faculty Studio: 
Not a particularly exciting bathroom, the Faculty Studio bath room is a space for teachers to escape the heavily-trafficked student bathrooms. The primary interesting features of this bathroom is the larger stall and dividers in the urinals. These small amenities give this bathroom a small leg up on most of the bathrooms that the students use.
Carpentry room:
A bathroom hidden away in a room most students don’t even know exist, the carpentry room bathroom is a nice safe haven for some of the more behind the scenes workers at the Rock. Boasting just one toilet behind a locked door and a small locker, we are sure this bathroom is a great place for the Rockhurst Staff.
