We can all appreciate something to read in the bathroom. You know, when nature calls.
Cell phones have cut down on the necessity of a book, magazine or newspaper, especially when you’re not at home. Sure, we expect you to keep a copy of the latest Insider on you at all times, but we understand it doesn’t always happen that way. And what if you left your celly at home or it’s out of battery?
Just think of the boredom that will ensue as you sit there for however long it takes to handle your business.
Well, if you’re on the campus of NHTI, there’s a solution: The Porcelain Post. It’s kind of like the school’s equivalent to a student newspaper, but it’s not the typical spots on campus you’d expect from a college publication. Instead of being placed in racks for students and faculty to grab and read between classes, it’s put in bathrooms all around campus – except for the dorms.
“It goes into every bathroom, locker rooms and each stall,” said Marissa O’Shea, an AmeriCorps VISTA at NHTI who oversees the paper. “Every building on campus that’s not a residence hall.”
So you can see how the name makes sense.
It’s a single sheet of paper that’s distributed each Friday, containing all kinds of fun and useful information about the happenings at NHTI.
“We’re going to hit every student on campus in the bathrooms,” O’Shea said.
The paper is placed in a plastic cover that’s secured to the inside of stalls and above urinals by a male and female student, because you really need one of each since we are talking about gender-specific bathrooms here.
The one-page “newspaper” uses a catchy font for the masthead and has a little toilet paper roll person in the upper right corner – that appears to be the mascot. There are nine spaces for all kinds of stuff.
This semester, the weekly publication has two mainstays. Community Corner, which is anything about an upcoming community service or outreach event. Then there’s the fun corner. In the past, it’s included lots of pictures of cats, which we would be big fans of, but lately it’s been all about the wackie wordie. You know those little brain teasers using words.
“That’s the thing for this semester,” O’Shea said.
From there, the other seven spots on the page are up to the discretion of O’Shea and the students who work on the paper.
“We talk about things that are coming up that week and stuff in the future,” O’Shea said.
Emails come in from all corners of campus looking to highlight an event, either that week – like bake sales, the wheelchair basketball game or speed dating – or something students need to look forward to, like getting tickets for the spring comedy show.
They also get info about work study programs or calls to join an organization. A few weeks ago, they had a scavenger hunt around Black History Month. So you never really know what you’re going to find in The Porcelain Post.
“It really depends on the week,” O’Shea said. “We always give precedence to what’s going on that week.”
Production day is Wednesday, and it’s a two-student job. One puts it together and the other gives it a first edit. Typically, it’s the team of Catherine Mernin and Casey Aspell working the four-hour shift, but others have filled in.
“They get quite a bit of leeway with it,” O’Shea said.
Thursday is the day that O’Shea does one final edit before Friday’s print. There are 110 copies printed each week.
It all started in 2009 as The Bathroom News and featured longer articles, but over time it’s evolved and even got a name change last year to The Porcelain Post.
But it’s always been a go-to place for news about the happenings on the campus of NHTI. And you can’t argue that it gets distributed to a pretty good location.
Maybe we should start putting the Insider in bathrooms around town?
