Can you spare a square?

When junior Ram Golan is in his Missouri Hall community bathroom, he doesn't reach for the University-provided 2-ply toilet paper — he has his own. He dislikes University-provided toilet paper enough that despite living where it is provided for free, he spends money on store-bought varieties.

"Honestly I feel like it's just non-absorbent, and then it's rough," Golan said. "So it's just the two worst combinations. It's just uncomfortable and unpleasant."

It's both an unspoken rule and passed-on advice among the men in his residence hall wing to buy and use store-bought toilet paper, he said.

"I think the entire [Missouri] Hall 2 North, all last year and other people [bought their own]," Golan said. "Towards the beginning of the year … it was unspoken, then as soon as people started complaining about it and saying things about it everyone was like ‘Yeah, I have that problem too.'"

Truman annually purchases 60,000 toilet paper rolls with each 2-ply roll containing 1,000 squares, said Facilities Co-Supervisor Tim Maize, who is in charge of all residence hall maintenance and housekeeping.

The University orders the toilet paper through a bidding process where it chooses the interested companies' lowest bid for that year, he said. Industrial Soap is the current provider, having won the bid with $38.98 per case, equalling $24,000 for the year, he said. This rounds out to approximately $4 per student each school year.

Of the residence halls, Missouri Hall and Dobson Hall use the most toilet paper because they have 33 and 11 community bathrooms, respectively, Maize said. Each month, Missouri Hall typically uses 1,500 to 2,000 rolls, he said.  The bathrooms are restocked daily — the housekeepers fill the empty slots in the dispensers that each hold two rolls. He said the housekeeping staff stocks extra rolls on window sills in case there is more use than usual or the stalls run out at night.

Academic Housekeeping Forewoman Cheryl Miller said that of the academic buildings, Pickler Memorial Library probably uses the most toilet paper because it has the most student traffic.

Some students are not averse to taking advantage of University-provided toilet paper — stealing extra rolls that are left out or taking rolls from the dispensers.

"We have had some dispensers that have been broken into several times on campus in different buildings," Miller said. "I've just had reports from my housekeepers that they know that the dispensers have been broken into and toilet paper taken. … In McClain [Hall] they did it a lot."

Housekeeper Terry Crook said toilet paper theft is common in the fall when parades and other celebrations are going on.

"I don't know what they do with it, but one day I walked in [the men's main floor Violette Hall bathroom] and I think all of it was gone in the men's. I don't know how — somebody must have had a key or the knowledge of getting in [the dispensers]. It was all gone."

Maize said he has seen some students go as far as taking entire cases of toilet paper.

"We've actually even seen students carrying a case across the road heading toward the fraternity house, and we try to stop them," he said. "That was just like a delivery that they — the bay — had set out there before the housekeepers had it put away, and he just seen a case and grabbed it and took off. But it does happen occasionally but you can't really stop it. … That one student did get caught."

Despite spending thousands on toilet paper annually, it is inevitable that some will face a well-known dilemma — the toilet paper dispenser is empty and it's too late to move to a different stall.

Miller said that when students are in a situation where a bathroom is out of toilet paper, they should report it to the Physical Plant.

"If they will report it to the Physical Plant Office, they can always get ahold of someone to replenish, restock the bathrooms."

(Additional reporting by Amy Caldwell)