SSP Purdue Biochem: Ranking Water Fountains

“Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. / There is no life without water”

  • Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1893-1986
    Over the past three weeks of SSP, I’ve been taking careful notes to rank all the water drinking
    stations. My rubric consists of:
    1) 1 pt: Convenience, location, and availability of the water source
    2) 1 pt: Taste and quality of the water
    3) 1 pt: Temperature/ice availability–an especially important point on a hot Lafayette day.
    –Lab Water Fountains: 1st and 4th Floor–
    Although conveniently located on long lab days in CHAS, the quality is weird and has a notably
    funky taste. No ice. (1/3)

Basement Water Fountain–
[insert picture]
Completely out of the way unless I’m already downstairs and I don’t have a water bottle on
hand. Stale taste, room temperature. I guess there’s an ice machine in the other room though?
(1/3)
–Ford Dining Hall–
My personal favorite! Location is convenient if you go to breakfast, or otherwise available at
dinner if one fill is enough for a 24 hour cycle. The water fountains taste refreshing and have
ice:) (3/3)
–Purdue Bookstore–

I only put this in because of how ugly the fountain was. It’s wildly out of the way (not in bounds),
no ice, and I was not brave enough to try it. I’m just going to assume the quality is bad. (0/3)

–Honors College North 1st Floor Fountain (by Elevator)– The convenience point speaks for itself, but there is no ice unless you go down to the basement. However, the water quality was surprisingly normal!! The water bottle refill fountain was odd, but by the graces of the water gods of West Lafayette, Indiana, the regular fountain that spouts water out like the arches of heaven had regular tasting water! Refreshing, thirst-quenching, soul-healing, the first floor water fountain floored me <3 (2/3 according to the rubric, but a 3/3 in my heart for the surprise factor:) –HCN 2nd Floor Fountain– The water bottle refill fountain has the same inescapable stale taste as almost every other fountain on the Purdue campus. Disappointing, but not surprising. It’s conveniently located, but I avoid it if I can. No ice. (1/3) –Water Fountain Outside Au Bon Pain– Not really convenient, no ice, and still has a weird taste. It feels cruel to rank it as low as the bookstore water fountain though. (0/3) Although there are more water stations, I didn’t include them either because the location was inconvenient and boring, or the water source wasn’t a refillable station (e.g. free water from Starbucks or buying a plastic water bottle).

In conclusion, perhaps Ford does not deserve all the hate it gets. Perhaps Ford is truly, “life’s
matter and matrix, mother and medium.” Perhaps it is time for everyone to wash their water
bottle with proper dish soap in the community kitchen.

By Avery