Maintenance issues in Southwest and Bridgeway residence halls have been continuously causing hassles for the students residing in them since the beginning of fall semester 2013.
Between both elevators breaking down in Southwest and bathrooms not functioning properly in Bridgeway, it is safe to say that both residence halls have been an inconvenience for the students living in them.
“It was hard carrying all of my groceries and stuff from home up the stairs when the elevators weren’t working,” senior mechanical engineering major Troy Berg said.
It is very rare to have both sets of elevators stop working at the same time, Department of Residence Life Director Linda Mulroy-Bowden said. “To my knowledge, I don’t think we’ve ever had two elevators go out at the same time.”
The elevator maintenance company had to be called in from another city but was able to fix both elevators within a short period of time.
Bridgeway has been having quite a few problems itself, but being a brand new building, the students living there are expected to speak up if something is wrong. There have been reports of bathroom showers not working right, poster boards falling down, keys not working and other minor maintenance issues. Problems like these are anticipated when having a new building, however, if they are not reported, they cannot be resolved.
“If something isn’t working right, (such as) your shower isn’t hot enough, you have to let someone know so it can be fixed right away,” Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Peter Nemmetz said.
There is a one-year window to get all of the buildings’ kinks out under the contractor’s warranty, which is why it is so important to tell someone if you are having maintenance issues. A situation in which a student could not have done anything wrong to have damaged the property will not get billed for it. If a normal maintenance operator cannot resolve the problem, the contractor will be called in and they will repair it for free, since it is in the one-year window of the building’s warranty.
Overall, student satisfaction is what the Department of Residence Life is striving for, so these problems are taken very seriously and try to be taken care of in a timely manner.
“Problems will persist, but we will manage and respond to them when they happen,” Bowden said.
