When sophomore undecided major Christina Burke walked into her fifth floor residence hall bathroom in Stevenson a week ago, she found something quite shocking.

“There was a patch of blood in the middle of the floor and it was there for a few days,” Burke said.

Burke said there is no reason for the bathrooms to be that unsanitary as a custodian puts signs in the bathroom telling students to clean up after themselves.

“Even though most of the time our bathroom is clean, I still feel like people should clean up after themselves and it shouldn’t matter what it is for,” Burke said.

Leon Aburime, a sophomore mechanical engineering major and student helper for Building Services at NIU, is all too familiar with the hard work janitors do.

Aburime can relate to the feelings of both students and janitors because he is a resident on the fourth floor of Douglas Hall and cleans the cafeteria and select bathrooms in the Stevenson Towers.

“I have to clean up after people so I respect the other janitors for what they do,” Aburime said.

Based on Aburime’s experience, he finds upperclassmen floors respect custodians more. Aburime said his floor is clean most of the time but knows some residents lack respect.

Sophomore psychology major and former community adviser for Neptune Hall, Latrice Arrington, said all students on a floor must care about the hall bathrooms in order to maintain cleanliness.

Arrington said students must realize the custodians are not here to clean up after students — they are here to maintain daily service and make sure everything remains as clean as possible.

“CA’s threaten floors and tell them that the whole floor will get fined for what one student may do,” Arrington said. “Yet, some residents care about being fined and some don’t, so it is hard to have a few that care against a majority that doesn’t.”

Claudia Fernandez, a sophomore family consumer nutritional sciences major and Grant Hall resident, said everyone either has been in an unclean bathroom or knows someone who has.

“I believe that it’s happened to many of us where you walk into a stall on a Friday or Saturday morning and there’s vomit all over the toilet or floor,” Fernandez said.