By MAGGIE KIELY
The Eagle
Elaine Benes sits in a bathroom stall, pleading with a stingy toilet-paper hoarder to "spare a square."
"Excuse me. I'm sorry. This is, a, kind-of embarrassing but there's no toilet paper over here."
"Are you talking to me?" the stranger asks.
"Yeah, I just forgot to check. So, if you could spare some."
Nope.
More awkward banter.
"Three squares? You can't spare three squares?" Benes shouts.
The woman leaves after saying: "No I don't have a square to spare. I can't spare a square."
That famous scene from the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld soon may be playing out thousands of times in dorm bathrooms across the Texas A&M campus.
It's come to that.
To save money, the Department of Student Affairs is considering shelving free t-paper in the residence halls. Discussions still are under way, but it's likely that the larger dorm bathrooms -- where four or more gather -- will keep the necessary item in stock.
Other cost-cutting measures under consideration: Not buying new furniture for Rudder Theater, reducing student worker wages, eliminating one exhibition a year in University Arts, eliminating cell phone stipends for several staff members and reducing the amount of paper, toner and other supplies throughout the year.
The toilet paper savings would wipe away about $82,000 of the $2.2 million that Student Affairs has been charged to reduce in its operating budget for fiscal year 2012. The department's reduction plan was released Tuesday, along with almost $40 million in proposed downsizing across the campus.
Some students interviewed said the t-paper issue brings into focus how desperate the funding situation must be.
It wasn't clear late Tuesday how many rolls or what type of toilet paper the university buys annually. Under the proposal, after getting a few free rolls at the beginning of a semester, students would be on their own in purchasing the hygiene supplies.
Michael Spiegelhauer, a 20-year-old biological and agricultural engineering major from Bartlett, said the cut in bathroom supplies is "definitely going to be a major complaint for students."
Spiegelhauer lives in Fowler Residence Hall and said he receives new rolls about once a week.
"It's going to become a problem," he said.
He said he'd rather see tuition raised than have to worry about where he's going to get his TP from.
"How's he going to get TP?" asked his buddy, Daniel Overstreet. "He doesn't even have a car."
Overstreet, a 20-year old electronics, engineering and technology major from Flower Mound, said he thinks the change will result in Aggie's breaking some rules.
"It's going to make people resort to going where there is toilet paper on campus and taking it from there," said the off-campus student.
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