The Colorado Mesa University Stall Street Journal is arguably one of the most read and recognized publications on campus, yet it faces distribution issues. An individual has merely to use multiple restrooms at different locations to observe the fact updated journals do not make it everywhere. The problem stems from the multitude of stalls and limited manpower.
As the book, “Everyone Poops,” written by Taro Gomi, declares in its title, everyone needs to use the restroom at some time or another. When an individual does so on campus, they have something to look at while they take care of personal business: the Stall Street Journal.
The journal provides information about events on or around campus. For some, this may be the only means of staying updated on what is going on outside of class.
Sometimes, however, new copies of the journal don’t make it everywhere. The fall semester has been underway for a month now, yet the occasional summer edition of the journal may still be found in restrooms that are less well-travelled than others.
CMU’s Campus Design Studio (CDS) designs the Stall Street Journal, but according to John Spriggs, distribution is a matter for Student Life.
“Distribution in terms of everybody reading it, that’s more a Student Life student aid issue,” Spriggs said. “We send it campus-wide […] but distribution pretty much falls on Student Life Aids and the hours they’re able to send stuff out.”
The journal is supposed to be distributed to 212 women’s stalls and 207 men’s stalls. There are less than 10 student aids working to deliver the publication to the 419 stalls on campus.
The disparity in the ratio of aids-to-stalls contributes greatly to the difficulty in placing an up-to-date journal in every stall. It’s not a problem that lies specifically within Student Life. Rather, the issue is one of too few students being interested, qualified and aware of the ability to work for Student Life.
Julie Stump, manager of Student Life operations, is hoping to bolster the number of aids available for distribution. Student Life is specifically looking to hire more male students, who can access the men’s restrooms for distribution.
“In the next day or two, we’ll be posting a job application on Handshake, the school job search program, for male work study students who have Mavworks or work study funds available,” Stump said. “Girls are covered. We need more males.”
Male students who qualify for work study and want to earn money while getting involved on campus can go to the Handshake application on Mavzone and look for the posting. Questions or concerns about working as a student aid can be directed to Student Life, located on the second floor of the University Center in room 212.
