Free toilet paper and trash bags were a luxury Quinnipiac students had grown accustomed to on campus. However, Facilities announced this year that it would no longer supply residence halls with these necessities.
“The university will continue to supply tissue paper in common bathrooms and garbage bags in common areas on both the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses,” Associate Director of Residential Life Melissa Karipidis said in a statement. “In keeping with practices at other universities, all students living in campus housing are now required to supply their own tissue paper and garbage bags for their individual residence hall rooms.”
The new policy means that any student living in a residence hall without a community bathroom must provide their own toilet tissue and trash bags. The change affects all students living in sophomore, junior and senior housing at Quinnipiac. Even a few freshmen residence halls have a suite format and are subject to the change.
The policy change is consistent with Southern Connecticut State University. Students at SCSU must provide their own toilet paper and trash bags if they do not live in a residence hall with a community bathroom. While this is consistent with Quinnipiac University’s new policy, it does not affect as many students.
“We have only one senior and one junior dorm with private bathrooms,” Brian Bickford, a senior biology major at Southern Connecticut, said. “There are around six freshmen and sophomore dorms with community bathrooms.”
Residence halls at SCSU, with the exception of those few junior and senior halls, all have community bathrooms. While SCSU may not house as many students as Quinnipiac, its policy does not affect as large of a percentage of students.
While the policies are the same at Quinnipiac and Southern Connecticut, there are far more students affected at Quinnipiac.
“I just think its a little ridiculous. In Crescent last year, we had the same setup as we do now in Eastview,” senior biomedical marketing major Daniel Ferdinando said. “I just don’t see why we should be denied something we had previously, especially considering how we now pay more [to live in] this building.”
The sentiment is the same among other Quinnipiac students.
“The toilet paper and trash bags [the university] supplied us with were low quality to begin with, but now it feels like Quinnipiac is screwing [students] again,” senior advertising major David Carroll said.
Quinnipiac’s crosstown rival, Yale University, has a slightly different policy in its residence halls. According to Sirui Sun, a senior at Yale, all residence halls are provided with toilet paper from the university. However, students at Yale still need to provide their own trash bags for their rooms.
While neither Yale nor Southern Connecticut provide their residents with both toilet tissue or trash bags, Quinnipiac students are still struggling with the new policy.
“I’m sure [Quinnipiac] sees these as non-essentials, so the school sees no reason to provide them to us, saving them money” Ferdinando said.
Quinnipiac’s motives behind the move have not been formally announced, but some light has been shed on the matter.
“We do try throughout a student’s progress through our halls to slowly introduce our students to responsibilities that they may face upon leaving Quinnipiac such as cleaning their own spaces, cooking for themselves, and shopping for living necessities,” Crescent Residence Hall Director Audrey Heins said to a parent in an email.
As Quinnipiac looks to further its students’ independence, students continue to protest the change in residential living.
