Bathrooms are the backbone of our society.

I’m completely serious. The advancements in plumbing technology and how common bathrooms are in buildings are some of the best things to come out of modern technology. It ensures our society is cleaner and healthier.

However, not all bathrooms are built equally, and not all bathrooms have caught up with the modern-day needs of the public. No better example is the difference in bathrooms across campus.

With constant construction happening every year on campus, the divide in quality for bathrooms across campus is greater than ever, thus, I feel it is the best time to do this ranking.

Here is how this ranking will be done. I will go from best to worst, with the buildings with the best quality bathrooms at the top of the list and the ones with the worst quality at the bottom of the list. Each ranking will have multiple factors contributing to their spot, including:

• Ease of access, convenience
• Number of bathrooms per building
• Number of toilets per bathroom
• Safety, comfort
• Aesthetic

Cleanliness is also an important factor, but since university bathrooms are cleaned every night before the school day starts, there isn’t a consistent way to rate this aspect except to visit the bathrooms at the same time every day. With this in mind, this will not be a major factor except for a few buildings.

As for buildings ranked, I will only be covering buildings that receive high student traffic and are consistently open to the public. So, no Griffin Center, Art Studio, Ceramics Center, Physical Service Plant Center, Creative and Print Center, Housing and Residence Life Center or Aquatic Center. This leaves me with 16 buildings for this ranking.

Without further ado, here is the list:

 

1. Romain College of Business:

At the top of the list, we have the Romain College of Business. While it doesn’t leave me speechless with its beauty, it checks all of the boxes for what I’m looking for in my ideal bathroom.

All bathrooms have the same layout, and it’s modern and well-kept. I never feel like I’m questioning myself for using them. They are also easy to find, with one immediately seen on the ground floor next to the main entrance.

Add on some automatic appliances and a solid number of sinks, toilets per bathroom, you’ve got yourself the most reliable bathrooms across campus.

 

2. David L. Rice Library:

You may be surprised to see this building this high up. The bathrooms aren’t as modern, and there are manual toilets and sinks. What makes it so special?

Convenience. The David L. Rice Library is the current king of convenience on campus. Not only is there at least one bathroom on every floor, but they are also extremely easy to find as they are in the same spot on every floor.

There is also a very solid number of toilets per bathroom, so you are never left fighting for space, but even if you are, you can just go around the corner or another floor for another bathroom.

No other building has this level of flexibility with its bathrooms, which is why it is up this high on the list.

 

3. Recreational, Fitness and Wellness Center:

The renovated Recreational, Fitness and Wellness Center (RFWC) is the king of privacy and tied with having the most bathrooms on campus.

All bathrooms in the renovated sections of the building are unisex singles, meaning you have complete privacy to conduct your business. This does have the consequence of fewer overall toilets, leading to potential wait times. They are also quite tricky to find, as most of them are in weird places you wouldn’t expect them to be.

Still, the luxury of a private bathroom alongside the upgrade of freshly installed toilets leaves a bathroom experience that is rare on campus, only seen in two other buildings on campus. Plus the larger locker room bathrooms allow for students to store their equipment whenever they choose to visis the RFWC.

 

4. Screaming Eagles Complex:

The Screaming Eagles Complex values quality over quantity.

You may be out of luck if you decide to use these facilities on busy days. The Screaming Eagles Complex loses in the numbers game, only having three bathrooms and very limited toilets per bathroom, making it one of the more limited bathrooms on campus. However, the lack of bathrooms is made with consistence and convenience.

One bathroom per floor, each one in the same spot and with the same layout. The layout is clean and modern, a benefit of how new the building is compared to the other campus buildings, leaving comfort and security while you take care of business.

 

5. Fuquay Welcome Center:

I would describe the Fuquay Welcome Center bathrooms as humble.

For most students, this will be the first building they visit as this is the central hub for campus visits and tours. For some students, this is also the first bathroom experience they have on campus, and these first impressions matter.

The Fuquay Welcome Center only has two bathrooms: a set for men and women plus one unisex. While it isn’t much, especially on occasions when larger groups visit campus from local high schools, it gets the job done where it matters, and that is with small tour groups. 

The bathrooms are up-to-date, clean and even have the luxury of privacy with the single unisex bathroom. Add on the convenient location, and you have some pretty darn good bathrooms that check almost every box.

 

6. College of Liberal Arts:

The College of Liberal Arts is a slightly weaker version of the Rice Library.

All bathrooms have the same layout and are all in the same spots on every floor. They are also really easy to find, especially since two bathrooms are visible once you step into the building.

However, I find it worse than the Rice Library because there aren’t as many total bathrooms in the building, which is especially felt on the top floor. These bathrooms are also not as aesthetically pleasing as the Rice Library.

However, the convenience of the College of Liberal Arts cannot be understated, a benefit so big it bumps it to the upper tier of bathrooms on the list.

At this point, we now start covering bathrooms that are more middle-of-the-road. These bathrooms get the job done, but they could use some work.

 

7. Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions:

This is a complicated one. As of writing this list, this building is undergoing construction that is not scheduled to be completed until 2026. However, I feel like with the traffic this building gets, it still deserves to be ranked, especially since all bathrooms can still be accessed.

The one thing that defines the Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions is its numbers. This building has the most bathrooms on campus, even more than Liberty Arena. With those numbers, there is never a risk of competing for spots.

Then you have the top floor. The building’s construction has resulted in this part of the building getting some updates, and let me tell you, they spared no expense. These bathrooms are luxurious and are, by far, the nicest on campus. The aesthetic is chic and modern, there is a large number of toilets per bathroom and there are even unisex singles. I imagine that once the construction is done, the Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions will have the best bathrooms on campus. 

However, it is not there yet. The bathrooms on the first two floors are weird and showing their age, the first floor especially, which is by far the worst bathroom on campus in regards to privacy as it is built like a long hallway, or, even worse, a high school bathroom.

The bathrooms on the second floor are not nearly as bad, but suffer from being in an inconvenient spot and not having a lot of toilets.

Overall, the large discrepancy of quality of this building is what’s keeping it from being in the upper echelon of bathrooms.

 

8. Liberty Arena:

On the surface, Liberty Arena has some pretty solid bathrooms.

They are clean, modern and there are a lot of them. There are even some unisex singles, the last building on this list to do so. By and large, the area should be near the top of the list.

The issue comes with when these bathrooms will be used, during sports games. Most of the time, there tend to be no bathrooms open, meaning you will have to wait. Of course, it’s not all the time, but it’s enough times where the benefits present with this building’s bathrooms have no room to shine and are squashed by their lack of convenience.

To be fair, other events happen at the arena besides sports games, and in those moments, the arena has room to shine.

 

9. University Center East:

University Center East (UC East) is just fine.

These bathrooms are dependable and do the job required from them and nothing more. There isn’t much more to say. The aesthetic is fine. The convenience is fine. It has a fine number of toilets per bathroom.

If anything, UC East is my ground floor when rating bathrooms on campus. They are dependable, humble and uninteresting. It’s the white bread of bathrooms on campus, and, honestly, there is nothing wrong with that.

 

10. Education Center:

Everything I said about UC East applies to the Education Center.

The bathrooms are dependable and do the job required alongside fine aesthetics, convenience and number of toilets per bathroom. One of the men’s bathrooms even has free health products for people who need them.

The reason why I find UC East better than the Education Center is because it has an extra bathroom. Still, these two buildings are so close together in quality to the point where if I were to do this list again, I might switch them around.

For now, it sits comfortably below UC East as another solid bathroom.

 

11. Orr Center:

The Orr Center probably has the weirdest layout of all the bathrooms on campus.

There is one set of bathrooms per floor, each one sporting a different location each time. The second floor is especially strange as the men’s and women’s bathrooms are separated by the middle elevator and tucked into a corner, a choice that is as inconvenient as it is strange.

Despite this weird layout, the bathrooms themselves aren’t terrible. There is a decent number of toilets per bathroom and an aesthetic that is on the border of being on the same level as a high school bathroom.

It’s bearable enough without being super annoying

 

12. University Center West:

University Center West (UC West) is a notable step down from the bathrooms in UC East.

While being easier to find than UC East, to the point where they’re even more convenient, the aesthetics and quality of the bathrooms feel old and outdated. There are also fewer toilets per bathroom, a tradeoff I cannot ignore.

It doesn’t help that each bathroom has a different layout. If you got to this building for the first time, it’s a luck of the draw what experience you will have. However, it never borders on being overtly bad, just uninteresting and forgettable, which isn’t a horrible thing when describing bathrooms.

To end on a positive note, one of the men’s bathrooms next to the Loft carries a bin of hygiene products, something that is always a nice thing to see and should be much more common across campus.

 

13. Science Center:

The Science Center has the worst layout of bathrooms on campus as they are really difficult to find.

Half of the bathrooms are shoved into holes in the wall, to the point where they look like entrances to a different part of the building. I had to do mental gymnastics to decide if these were bathroom entrances or classrooms, something I should not have to do.

Alongside this, the bathrooms that are built like this feel more akin to storage closets. They are tiny, outdated and messy. I didn’t have a good time exploring this section of the Science Center bathrooms

Thankfully, the other half of the bathrooms are easy to find as they stick out like a sore thumb. Even better, these bathrooms are spacious and have a much better aesthetic that feel more up to date than the other bathrooms do.

Ultimately, the Science Center’s bathrooms are disjointed and inconsistent, having some really good bathrooms and some that are terrible. Still, I find that the positives barely outweigh the negatives.

From here on out, I will be discussing the bathrooms I find to be bottom of the barrel, to the point I do my best to avoid them whenever possible.

 

14. Community Center:

I would say the Community Center (C Store) has about the same amount of traffic as the Fuquay Welcome Center. I would also describe the C Store’s bathrooms as a worse version of the Fuquay Welcome Center.

Only one set of men’s and women’s bathrooms, with no unisex bathrooms, and a very limited number of toilets with outdated aesthetics. It feels like you’re doing business in a bunker.

This vibe is something that hurts it because, in reality, they aren’t too bad, but because it feels so dark and grimy in there, it actively makes me want to avoid it.

 

15. Wright Administration Building:

This was the most surprising building in my research for this list. While it is not in last place, the quality of the bathrooms in the Wright Administration Building is the worst on campus.

Both bathrooms in this building have a very limited number of toilets and a design that is outdated to the point where I feel physical discomfort being in those bathrooms. No other building on campus does that for me, where I actively choose to avoid the bathrooms as much as I can.

The only reason it is not in last place is that there is more than one bathroom in the building, a luxury our final building doesn’t have.

 

16. Arts Center:

While I find the quality of the bathrooms at the Wright Administration Building to be worse, the fact that there is only one bathroom in the Arts Center automatically puts it in the bottom tier for me. Add on the limited number of toilets in the bathroom with a quality that barely surpasses the Wright Administration Building, it was a no-brainer choosing what the bottom spot was.

Do you know the worst thing about this whole list? The other 15 buildings on this list I had to think about their placement. I had to crunch numbers and weigh the positives and negatives of each one, unsure how everything might turn out once I was finished. 

Nothing was predetermined, except a nagging feeling that the Arts Center would be at the bottom.