Keep It Neat: Dorm Cleanliness at WWC
Trinity Larsen | September 30, 2025
A Schafer bathroom at Warren Wilson College (WWC) in Swannanoa, N.C.. (Mallory Wallace-Usry/Echo)
Going from having one’s own personal space to sharing a dorm and its amenities can be difficult at first, especially when these spaces seem to never be clean. How does the Warren Wilson College (WWC) campus, both individually and as smaller dorm communities, prevent the spaces students temporarily call home from turning into an all-encompassing mess?
The Harper Cleaning Group–also known as WWC’s custodians–clean just about everything on campus from residence halls to classrooms. Students may not see them, but that does not mean the effects of their work go unnoticed. Bella Sosa, a sophomore who has lived in Sutton for two years, has gotten to know the Harper’s employee who cleans her dorm.
“We have [a cleaning lady], and she is an absolute sweetheart,” Sosa said. “We all love her so much, we're all really close to her. I've known her since last year, and we kind of built that friendship and relationship because she speaks very little English. We can just connect, since we both speak Spanish.”
A senior Sutton resident, who wished to remain anonymous, noted that not everyone is considerate of who will have to deal with messes in dorms and other buildings on campus.
“This semester one of our toilets was used not very considerately, so it didn't flush for a long time,” the resident said. “That's something Harper's [custodians] have to deal with, which shouldn't be something they have to deal with.”
Sosa believes that there is not a cleanliness issue regarding bathrooms and communal spaces like the kitchen and common room in Sutton. She attributes the organized and respectful nature of the dorm to residents communicating in their hall group chat. as well at monthly hall meetings.
"It's a tight knit community, since we’re a smaller dorm,” Sosa said. “We're able to openly communicate with each other. We're not really afraid of that, because we know if something's happening, then it can be corrected.”
Sutton residents are also required to be a part of WWC’s Engage Program, which promotes student leadership on campus and in the greater Swannanoa and Asheville community.
“I'll probably stay in Sutton for as long as I can,” Sosa said. “I'm not sure I want to go anywhere else. It's really communal.”
While some dorms like Sutton do not struggle with cleanliness, this is not a universal experience on campus. Vining A and B, primarily freshman dorms, have faced issues keeping communal spaces like bathrooms and their shared kitchen clean.
“A lot of people use the bathrooms and then don't clean up after themselves,” Calendula Dulle, a freshman living in Vining B, said. “Then the kitchen is also kind of sketchy. People don't really do their dishes.”
Dulle mentioned that some of Vining’s residents hung up handwritten instruction signs to remind people to clean up their messes. While some students found the signs helpful, others found them to be a nuisance. Dulle also shared that community bonding doesn’t necessarily make for a cleaner space in every dorm.
The communal kitchen space that Vining A and Vining B share has previously hosted Stew Night, a weekly event where Vining residents cook two to three pots of stew for their fellow students. Though Dulle appreciated the community that these events created, along with how the hosts of Stew Night always left the kitchen clean, she noted that this community bonding did not necessarily guarantee cleanliness on the part of all residents. Why do the Vining community spaces end up being so messy despite this community bonding?
“[The cleanliness issue] is definitely [influenced by how] people are brought up, or what practices in their homes are like,” a student who wished to remain anonymous said. “I'm not saying it's not clean, but maybe those are things they don't have to consider because someone else does it.”
Dulle also mentioned how differing individual standards may contribute to a messier space.
“Well, I think everyone has different levels of comfort with how the state of the space is,” Dulle said. “It might be fine if you're used to having a messy space...but when we're sharing, we should make it something that we can all enjoy. If there's stuff everywhere, it's gonna be harder for some people.”
Students cleaning up after themselves, whether that be washing dishes or wiping up remnants of hair dye, are small actions that WWC community members can take to make dorm living conditions pleasant.