The once-yellow plush seats appear faintly grayish-brown and are rife with unidentifiable stains. From the perspective of an obsessive-compulsive germaphobe, these seats are as bad as those on public transportation. Without fail, I have a class there every quarter — the psychology department seems to really love Solis — but I have good reason to resent this lecture hall. Unlike plastic chairs, seats made out of cloth are difficult to clean and disinfect. A friend showed me a New York Times article published on March 5, 2011 that has given me solid reason to avoid soft, cloth chairs for all eternity. Once you know, there’s no going back.
According to “On BART Trains, the Seats Are Taken (by Bacteria),” at least nine different bacteria strains — including fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics and a drug-resistant bacterium called MRSA — were discovered on a randomly selected BART seat. Even after the seat was cleaned with an alcohol wipe, the chair was still found to foster much harmful bacteria. Lecture halls experience far less traffic than public transit, but the underlying issue is still the same. Solis chairs are made of the exact same material as BART seats.
I am not worried about falling deathly ill immediately upon contact with these vile yellow chairs, but I cannot concentrate properly knowing that I am sitting on an entire jungle of bacteria and mold. To minimize contact with bus seats, Sheldon Cooper from “The Big Bang Theory” even wears a separate pair of trousers over his regular pants while riding public transportation. While I would never go so far as to wear “bus pants,” I do actively avoid sitting in the mainstream chairs of Solis Hall.
The very back, dimly-lit part of this lecture hall has a few reject chairs (the normal desks with plastic chairs attached) that people typically only sit in as a last resort. The peace of mind I get from sitting in a hard plastic chair over a plush one is worth scrawling my notes in the dark. In the same BART seat study, a random acrylic plastic Muni seat was tested and found to be far more sanitary — with only two benign bacteria colonies uncovered and no detectable bacteria after it was cleaned with an alcohol wipe. Yes, we do live in a world of bacteria — we’re alive because of these pests and there is no avoiding contact with them. And of course, I’m neurotic and no one else actually puts that much thought into the chairs they sit in. But despite this, I will still hold out hope that Solis 107 will get chair replacements before I graduate.
