Toccara BuckleyAn overflowing trash dumpster sits at the bottom of the stairs in Woodcrest. Flies hover aimlessly above the can and the overwhelming stench of the decaying garbage gags passers-by.
“They [housekeeping] only take off the top layer so they don’t overflow,” Brenda Moscatell, a freshman English/communications major, said. Moscatell is concerned that the heating system will filter the smell throughout the building when it is turned on.
The sanitation and general cleanliness of the dormitories and houses on campus is a major concern of residents. Bathrooms, kitchens and common areas are left unkempt.
“Perception has a lot to do with it as well,” Howard Holden, the director of facilities, said. Holden went on to say that students generally see the bathrooms in the morning, but they are not cleaned until the afternoon. Thus, they see them when they are the dirtiest.
“Housekeeping is really good, but the residents are kinda dirty,” Jen Scapellati, a sophomore English and secondary education major, said. Scapeletti complained that the floors in her bathroom in New Residence Hall are always wet and slippery.
There are schedules which housekeeping is supposed to follow, according to Holden. Light cleaning, like taking out the trash and cleaning the bathrooms, is supposed to be done every day. Larger cleaning jobs are done on a weekly basis, and large jobs, like cleaning the rugs, is done monthly.
Holden meets with the housekeeping once a week and Arthur Jackson, the contracted cleaning service company, once a month to discuss the status of the facilities, and housekeeping inspects the buildings weekly to make sure adequate facilitoes are being kept.
Aging houses and careless residents add to the mess.
The ceiling of room 14, in the basement of House Seven, flooded when the bathroom upstairs clogged on Sunday, Oct. 12.
“I woke up to hear dripping water,” Lindsey Mirigliani, a senior early childhood development and elementary education major, said. “It wasn’t like drip, drip. It was pouring.” Mirigliani caught the dirty toilet water in a trashcan until a Public Safety Officer, a facilities technician and a plumber arrived.
Facilities is usually there “within the day,” according to Holden.
She and her roommates scheduled a time with housekeeping to clean the carpets, as well. Housekeeping missed their appointment twice, according to Mirigliani. They had to deal with the smell for three days.
“Our ceiling is still stained,” Lauren Cannon, a senior education major and resident of room 14, said. “Our room is an accident waiting to happen.”
“It’s not just a question of housekeeping. It’s not just a question of facilities. It’s a question of thinking of fellow students. They expect to find a clean bathroom as much as [other students] do,” Holden said. “It’s an ongoing effort.”
“It’s not the best, but for college it’s not bad,” Cohr said.
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