Project Purpose
A university is like an agora from ancient Greece. Not only is it a place for the students but also a place the university staffs to gain knowledge, socialize and exchange intellectual thoughts with each other. Universities strive to create a comfortable community for current students and staffs. The aspect of comfort is often used to attract prospective students. A comfortable-living community provides very thoroughly what the residents need. And the bottom line of every community – the washrooms – is one of the most important determinant of how good the community is because it is the one place that is most used by the public even if it is not evident at first.
Exigency
A great community should be well organized starting from the lowest baseline. In our case, the washrooms. Washrooms are places that should be highly sanitized, where people can feel clean and safe to use from the second they walk in to the moment they walk out. Although the washrooms on campus are much sanitize, many students have experienced the same problem where they don’t feel the sense of cleanness and a sense of personal hygiene because of the usage of one ply toilet paper. One ply toilet paper has created a discomfort among students because it lacks durability hence, defeating the purpose of toilet papers. Toilet papers are supposed to be able to withstand friction and be highly absorbent to achieve optimum cleanliness. Therefore, because of the discomfort caused by the one ply toilet paper, it contradicts with the university’s goal of trying to create a comfortable community for both the students and staffs.
Audience
UNL administration who are trying to create a comfortable living community; and the students of the university, particularly those who lives on campus.
Constrains and opportunities
i. Constrains
1. UNL authorities assume that one ply toilet paper is better for the environment because it uses less resources.
2. It is cheaper to use one ply toilet paper.
3. One ply toilet paper reduces the chance of toilet clog.
ii. Opportunities
1. Current students complaining about using one ply toilet paper.
2. Creates a better image for the university when they listen to students’ feedback.
3. Two ply toilet paper will actually save more resources than one ply toilet paper. People fold one ply toilet paper multiple times more than two ply, hence increasing the waste rather than decreasing it.
4. Gives room for improvement to upgrade the washrooms, or even rebuild it.
How is our proposal a fitting response?
Many students now are already unsatisfied with one ply toilet paper in the toilets. Some students elect to bring their own toilet paper instead which is not a good sign. By providing them two ply toilet paper in the first place, it will increase their satisfaction and comfort. Two ply toilet paper will also increase personal hygiene among students and staff. One ply toilet paper could be a turnoff for prospective students.
Alternatives
I. Use thicker one ply toilet paper
II. Install bidet (water pipe)
III. Install toilet bowls with in-build concealable toilet pipes
However, all these alternatives will cost way more financially than to simply change from one ply toilet paper to two ply toilet paper. Using thicker one ply toilet paper will cost more because it requires higher production quality. It will also cost way more to install a bidet and an in-build concealable toilet pipes. The school will not only have to consider the price of the equipment, but also the installation price and potential water wastage following that choice of action.
Our main goal is to persuade and convince the universities’ authorities change from one ply toilet paper to two ply toilet paper in all the washrooms around the campus. With that, students will feel even more comfortable to use the public toilets on campus, while also increasing their personal hygiene.
Work Plan
Firstly, we would be conducting interviews and surveys on the current toilet paper
status. We would be asking on the people’s opinion on one ply toilet paper. We would
be videotaping the interview and making a video montage of the answers. Besides that,
we would also be collecting data on the costs of usage of one ply toilet paper in its
current state and comparing it with two ply toilet paper costs. The data would then be
used in an informative video concerning the costs and also the student’s opinion on one ply toilet paper. Both videos will start off with an introduction to the topic followed by
either the data or the response from the interviews. The video will then end with a link to
a petition for the cause. The nature of the first video would be aimed to be entertaining
(eg: meme-like) while the second video aims to be more educational. This helps to
promote discussion on the topic while also keeping it memorable through the joke-like
nature of the video. The videos will be uploaded on a Facebook page with a link to a
petition on the description section of the video.
Timeline
Group leader: Fei Wang
Members: Natasya, Jiaxia Deng , Yuan Ta Poh
1. Survey
- Person in charge: Natasya, Jiaxia Deng
- Will be conducted in the duration of two weeks
- Targeting students and UNL staffs
2. Campaign videoshoot
- Person in charge: Fei Wang, Natasya
- Showcase after the survey has been conducted
- Includes data and interviews of students and staffs
- Video will be shared on social media
3. Campaign
- Person in charge: Fei Wang
- Creation of page on Facebook and maintaining the page
- Posting up videos on the page
4. Portfolio
- Person in charge: Yuan Ta Poh
- Writing of portfolio
Work Done
We interviewed various UNL students and staff members on their thoughts of single-ply toilet paper. Some interviews were videotaped (with pre-agreed consent from the interviewee) and used to create a montage-like video. Following that, we created an informative video explaining the cons of 1-ply toilet papers and how changing to two-ply toilet paper is a good solution. After the creation of the videos, we created a page on Facebook named “Stop 1-Ply UNL” and posted up the videos on the page itself. The video montage pulled over 5 thousand views, 47 likes as of April 28th, 7 days after being posted, and 2 shares. Attached with the video is a link to a petition hosted on change.org in the video description.
Links
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bd22online
Video Montage: https://www.facebook.com/bd22online/videos/616011258562482
Informative Video: https://www.facebook.com/bd22online/videos/618848558278752
Petition: https://www.change.org/p/unl-housing-stop-using-one-ply-toilet-paper
Reflection
The creation of the videos was done nicely and exposure was pretty good. The petition did not receive many signings however which could be better. Having a campaign booth with real-life demonstrations would help boost exposure to students and UNL staffs. Petitioning to change to 2-ply toilet paper was a good choice as changing to water bidets or even wet wipes would be harder as financially, those alternate choices would cost too much to implement than just changing to 2-ply toilet papers.
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