Being hygiene conscious – or germaphobic, if you prefer – on Ohio State’s campus can be way too difficult at times. Mostly because the hand sanitizer containers seem to always be empty.
I eat dinner at Kennedy Commons. Standing in line for my food, I notice several hand sanitizer dispensers and think, “Good idea.” I put my hand under a dispenser and wait. And wait. And shake the dispenser a little. And realize it’s empty.
The same thing happens at Jesse Owens South. And then at William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library, along with numerous other places on campus.
I want to say that I frequently just wash my hands and I’m not constantly relying on these dispensers. However, hand sanitizer is a lot more convenient, and often as students, we don’t have a lot of time to spend getting out of a long line while waiting for food to go to a bathroom and wash our hands.
But am I the only person on this campus who finds it odd that the containers are even there if they aren’t being filled, reminding me of my unclean hands I’m about to eat with?
I hope not. If you feel the same way, don’t worry. I have found some answers and solutions for us.
As far as who put them there in the first place, it was various departments at OSU that purchased them around 2007 because of the Avian Flu breakouts.
Second, who is supposed to fill them? The custodial staff, which surprised me because the custodial staff does a great job cleaning up so many things around campus that I didn’t think this oversight could be one of their duties. But honestly, the randomly placed dispensers are probably easy to overlook if you aren’t actively seeking one out or being constantly reminded of flu season by that person sneezing and coughing across the table at the Science and Engineering Library.
Third, what do we do to fix the problem? I discovered there’s a really easy fix. Ohio State’s Service 2 Facilities, the “customer service solution organization,” according to its website, is on it. Not only can you call the organization or fill out a service request for the empty hand sanitizer container on the website, you can download an application onto your smartphone called “OSU S2F” that allows you to submit a picture of the empty dispenser. Service 2 Facilities’ website says it will then process your request and fix the problem as soon as possible.
So come on, fellow students who I know are as enthusiastic about staying flu-free as I am. Let’s all submit requests to get these things filled and reap the benefits of a hand sanitizer-plentiful campus.
But while we’re waiting for them to actually get filled, I guess we’ll just have to carry our own sanitizer around.
