Ivy League Toilet Paper
Dec 4, 2009

What's in these dorm room stalls? 1 ply or 2 ply?
As high school juniors & seniors across the select what college to attend for higher education, many factors play a role in this monumental decision. Where will I get the best education? Where will I enjoy my surroundings the most? How strong is the school’s community? What kind of toilet paper will there be in their restrooms? Is it one ply or two-ply?
As ridiculous as this question sounds, the issue is a subject of constant debate across many college campuses and even at American’s top Ivy League institutions. The issue was so important to students at Princeton University that the top candidates for Student Government President recently used the platform for a switch to 2-ply in university restrooms as a top campaign promises.
Advocates for the softer, more comfortable 2-ply toilet paper say the switch would meet the demands of the student body. They also claim while the rest of the university suffers from harshness of 1-ply, many of the administrators’, president’s, and executive offices are actually stocked with the cushioner 2-ply. In response to these claims, administrators argue switching the entire university to two-ply toilet paper goes against Princeton’s sustainability practices and would not make sense environmentally or economically.
Personally, it sounds as if this is a case of “Do as I say, not as I do.”. If the administration isn’t willing to give up their 2-ply, I don’t think the rest of the student body should have to either. And for the record, Harvard University made the switch to 2-ply a long time ago (back in 1998) and Yale followed suit a year later. Both universities are miraculously still able to balance their budgets AND boast impressive sustainability programs. For example, Harvard is the leading buying of wind power in all of New England while six of Yale’s buildings and labs carry the prestigious LEED certification.
While our blog posts are normally about weird & wacky toilet paper news, this is one story we just couldn’t ignore.

