Bergeron in response to Heather O’Keeffe’s “On the toilet: unwelcome, automatic splashes are just that”

To the editor,

Case Western Reserve University alumna, class of 2014 here: pretty much everyone hates automatic flush toilets. That being said, I work at a big fancy company (thanks, CWRU education!) where everyone has big fancy degrees and earns big fancy paychecks, but you’d be amazed at how often every single women’s toilet is unflushed by noon (spoiler: most days). Why? Who knows, but I’m putting money on the old “people are inconsiderate when they’re not held accountable” thing (just look at the freshman dorms on a Sunday morning if you want a good example of that).

Tip: put toilet paper over the automatic toilet sensor (if it’s not built into the wall) to prevent phantom flushes. Second tip: suck it up and bring some hand sanitizer if germs bother you that much.

I’m done dignifying that article with a response—I’m directing the rest of this to the editorial staff.

When did “opinion piece” become “write a hyperbolic piece about whatever inane annoyance you have and we’ll publish it?” This isn’t the only offending piece—just take a look through the archives. If you continue to set such a low bar for publishing standards, I’ll write up an opinion piece for you guys about how the CWRU winter sidewalk puddles are an injustice, especially on days where the Chipotle line is too long. That’ll show ’em!

Take a look at other schools’ student newspapers and note that the opinion pieces tend to be about current issues or the state of the university. Lighthearted pieces are fine sometimes, but please stop treating the opinion section like a free pass to whine about whatever nonsense you want. I am not proud of my alma mater when I read articles like this one; I encourage you to have higher standards when choosing opinion piece topics to publish.

Save the potty talk for social media, not a newspaper.