We need to have a conversation about bathrooms, the environment and money.

No, this is not going to be a really disgusting conversation about what happens while you are going to the bathroom. Instead, it will be about the stalls in the bathrooms at NIU.

This column is more inclined toward women since they use the bathrooms with stalls more than men do.

Of course, this problem exists in the mens bathrooms too, but I am more an expert in the women’s department.

Is there anything more annoying than when people write on the bathroom stalls? What’s the point? There are different culprits of this writing syndrome.

There are the people who write “I love Dave” or whoever on the bathroom wall. Is it really necessary to make a declaration of love on a bathroom wall? I mean is Dave going to see it? Or is the relationship carrying on undertones that only the subconscious will let shine through?

Or maybe you’ll meet a really cool guy at a party and then you’ll find out his name is Dave and of course you’ll back up in memory to your earlier restroom break and think “Oh no, I can’t pick this guy up. He might be the bathroom Dave who someone else loves.”

Then there are the “I’m going to have an intelligent conversation with the bathroom wall” people.

If you really need to voice your opinion about something, then do it somewhere where people might find it intelligent. The bathroom wall is not one of those places.

What would possess anyone to make an argument on a bathroom wall is beyond any conception of reality. What would be the point? The worst part is that people write back.

The reason all this graffiti has a direct effect on the environment is simple. You are defacing something that is around you and is your environment.

Then someone has to clean off the wall which takes cleaning solutions and something to wipe it off with, probably a paper towel or a cloth towel. The less that is used, the less that is wasted, the better off the environment is. It’s as simple as that.

Of course one also must consider the time that someone has to spend cleaning the stalls off. There probably are much better things for people to be doing than getting rid of offensive writing. This campus already has a big problem with litter, trash, etc. It would seem more valuable for someone to pick up the trash outside than erase the work of all the Da Vinci wannabe’s in the bathroom.

Believe it or not, bathroom graffiti also can be expensive. There was a story not too long ago in the Chicago Tribune about a school sued by a student because someone had scribbled some nasty things on the bathroom walls and the student was feeling the brunt of it.

The graffiti was not cleaned off right away, even after the student asked the school to do so. School administrators said the stalls are cleaned periodically, but not every time graffiti occurs.

The school ended up paying $250,000 to the student becuase a court considered the graffiti sexual harassment.

So the next time you’re feeling the urge to play Ernest Hemmingway or do bathroom scrabble while in the bathroom, give it a second thought and do only what you’re in there to do.