Events Building Bathrooms Become Priority For Bathroom Renovations

Imagine going to see a play or watch a basketball game with renovated bathrooms in the events building. That may be the future as Wright has secured funding for bathroom renovations and the current plan is to prioritize renovating the events building bathrooms.

 Interim Vice President of Finance and Operations Anna-Marie Morales said, “Our goal is to start in the events because it’s the largest, so if we are going to choose one bathroom set we are going with the largest in the building,” adding the importance of renovations there as the events building is where guests come for theater and sports events. “When people go in we want a good picture of Wright. We dislike the bathrooms here at Wright just as much as the students,” Morales said.

President Oroz revealed in September that funds were secured for the bathroom renovation project, which is being funded by the district office and capital funds from the state of Illinois. 

“We do have preliminary discussions with the folks about the events building bathrooms being the priority for now,” Oroz said. Wright still has to consult a combination of staff from the CCC district office and contractors to assess which bathrooms are in most need of repair.

A current bathroom renovation already being worked on is due to leaking pipes. Because of leaks in the arts building the men’s bathroom on the second and third floors has been closed.

According to Chief Engineer Luis Guerrero in an email response on Tuesday,  the work should be complete in 4-6 weeks. Custom doors are being furnished and once that’s done the ceiling and walls that need dry wall repairs will all be completed at the same time by a contractor.

Meanwhile, Morales said through the piping project that started in August water leaks were stopped. “It's almost like swiss cheese, there are random places in this building that just leak, that’s stopping the leaks,” Morales said.

Morales said, “As we’re finding different issues we’re trying to be proactive in getting them done.” Morales mentioned that emergency and weather-related responses have caused a delay in the bathroom renovation work. “So that’s been a little delayed ‘cause every time we start on that we had the snow, the flood, so we’re trying to pivot and we’ve had some boiler issues, so we’re trying to prioritize all of these things,” Morales said.

Morales also mentioned the district-funded curtainwall project to reduce leaks. According to the CCC 2026 budget, “This project replaces portions of the existing building envelope to maintain a watertight exterior. Replacement of the curtain wall system will also significantly improve the energy performance of the building.” The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2027. 

When talking to students some showed concern about the state of the bathrooms at Wright. Jalen Thomas, a kinesiology major who previously attended Illinois State University, said it was strange to see some of the bathrooms in disrepair and shared what he would like to see done. 

“I came from a 4 year university and it’s kind of a weird difference to see them I guess, ‘cause there's a lot of them. There's one that's been broken actually since I got here that hasn’t been fixed, so I would say just kind of getting stuff fixed up,” said Thomas.

Kami Paradiso, an inclusive special education major, said, “There aren’t hooks to hang my purse and I have to put it on the floor and it’s like wet and gross.”

Ramon Flores, an engineering student, said, “The stalls, sometimes the locks work and sometimes they don’t and the doors can get dirty sometimes. I feel like that needs to be fixed.”

Jasmine Secundio, a psych major, also complained about the doors. “I know some of the doors they don’t really close, I’ve seen like one or two doors that don’t work in the bathroom.”

Andrew Rios,  a cannabis studies major who was interviewed on the third floor of the science building, said, “On this floor there’s only one soap dispenser but there’s two sinks and there’s two paper towel dispensers. It could definitely use a soap dispenser. There’s a little bit of graffiti but I’ve seen worse.” Rios, who also attended Harold Washington College, said Wright seems to have more graffiti than Harold Washington. “I went to Harold Washington for my first associates and there's a little more graffiti here than over there,” Rios said.

Safety and Security Director Gissela Limon said, “Anybody needs to report that there’s graffiti because once we leave that there people think ‘oh we can continue.’” Limon said that once Safety and Security finds out about graffiti, facilities will remove it. Wright Times notified Safety and Security about graffiti discovered in the men’s bathroom of the arts building on the third floor on Jan. 15. By the following week the graffiti was removed.

As decisions have to still be made before more bathroom renovations are finalized, the question is what else besides the events building bathrooms will become a priority?

A stall in the events building men's bathroom remains closed. Photo Credit: Kyle Chmielowski.