c/o Dragoș Geica

c/o Dragoș Geica

In a campus-wide email sent on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, Medical Director Tom McLarney announced that the University will bring paper towels back to residential bathrooms. The reintroduction of paper towels is an effort to promote routine handwashing as Norovirus cases rise on campus and around the country. 

Paper towels were initially removed from residential buildings in 2015 to reduce waste, save money, decrease the workload for cleaning staff, and promote sustainability. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, paper towels returned, but the 2015 policy was reinstituted in the 2023-24 school year. 

“In the spirit of sustainability and protecting our environment, paper towels had been removed from many of the resident living spaces on campus,” McLarney wrote in an email to The Argus.  

Paper towels will stay in the restrooms at least until Spring Break, which begins on Saturday, March 8. However, students are still encouraged to bring their own towels to dry their hands when possible.

According to McLarney, despite the environmental impact that paper towels may have, the increasing number of Norovirus cases on campus necessitated their return to residence hall bathrooms. 

“I am a big proponent of protecting our environment in any ways we can and we also need to do our best to keep our campus community as healthy as possible,” McLarney wrote. “Restoring paper towels in the bathrooms was felt to be an important measure to decrease the spread of Norovirus.”

Norovirus cannot be eliminated by hand sanitizers. Careful handwashing, especially after using the restroom and before preparing and eating food, is the best method of prevention. Common symptoms of Norovirus include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which typically last from 24 to 72 hours.

“Norovirus will be controlled by washing hands with warm soapy water for at least 20 seconds,” McLarney wrote. “It is most important to wash hands after using the bathroom.”

Many students cheered the return of paper towels. 

“I’m really glad to see that paper towels have been brought back to our bathrooms because they are a basic necessity for people’s hygiene,” WSA senator Odin Marin ’27 said. “I think that there are other areas where we can as a community work to be greener instead of removing all paper towels. Since Norovirus is going around, I really hope that having paper towels encourages people to wash their hands thoroughly since they have a way to dry them.”

Leo Bader ’26, who wrote an article supporting the 2023 removal policy amid mixed student reception, agreed that the Norovirus situation required the return of paper towels.

“It makes sense to bring paper towels back in extraordinary circumstances,” Bader said. “If the University removes them again once Norovirus is no longer an issue, they might consider more transparency on how removing paper towels contributes to sustainability.”

However, some are skeptical of paper towels’ environmental impact and the University’s motives behind its removal policy. 

“[The removal of paper towels] was part of Wesleyan’s commitment to reduce our environmental footprint,” Environmental Social Network Coordinator Isaac Ostrow ’26 said. “But I think that the benefit…is really negligible, especially as we consider it as kind of a greenwashing attempt. It makes a lot of sense that they’d want to call attention to it when it literally saves them money.”

Ostrow added that other policies would be more worthwhile.

“Things like the sustainability department are underfunded,” Ostrow said. “There haven’t been capital campaigns to take big leaps and decarbonize Wesleyan. They’re not investing the necessary money [to fund] sustainability projects, whether that’s green energy on campus or offsetting student [and professor] travel. We have bigger fish to fry as the organizations that are trying to hold Wesleyan accountable on their sustainability plans.”

Miles Pinsof-Berlowitz contributed reporting.

Spencer Landers can be reached at sklanders@wesleyan.edu.

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