Mold welcomes 6th Street East residents

Returning students found mold in their apartments in Sixth St. East during move-in, despite the building being cleaned and closed during the summer.

"When I came in, I noticed dust-like residue all over the furniture. It didn't take me long to realize that it was, in fact, mold," said Tim Morin, a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering major.

Jamila Penn, a second-year Industrial Design major, found a similar problem in her room. "[Mold] was everywhere. all over the furniture, the chair, the footlocker and even the walls," Penn said.

Residence Life Director Dan Morrison said that rare environmental conditions might have contributed heavily to the mold problem.

"One of the biggest dilemmas is that some buildings are completely empty during the summer, and as a result there is not enough heat produced by people and appliances to absorb all the moisture," Morrison said. "This and the fact that the weather this summer has been unusually damp, produces conditions that are favorable for mold."

Morrison also said that previous problems with mold growth in Woodruff have diminished since Housing opened the residence hall for the first time this year during the summer.

"The decision was made this year to open Woodruff for the first time during the summer, and as a result we've had no reported cases of mold growth," Morrison said.

The Sixth St. Apartments complex is the second Housing building to have problems with mold growth this year. During the 2005 spring semester, local news station WGCL reported extensive mold growth on the walls and ceilings of a dorm room in Montag Hall. Housing cited the lack of a maintenance request as the reason for allowing the mold growth in that case.

"It was simply negligent this time for Housing not to check each room before the start of the semester," Morin said. "They should have checked the rooms at least a week before move in."

Housing cited the speed of the mold growth and limited resources as the reason why the mold was not initially detected.

"Mold can accumulate very quickly if conditions are right. sometimes even within twenty-four hours," Morrison said.

"It's a big challenge. There's a lot of manpower that goes into cleaning and inspecting each building and we do our best to allocate the resources and people that we have."

Fourth-year Aerospace Engineering major Lucas Garza found mold in his room. Housing responded to the problem quickly, but Garza was upset at the inconvenience and lack of thoroughness of the cleaning crew.

"When I went down to the Housing office, they told me to go online and fill out a maintenance request, but I didn't want to hook up my computer. I didn't want to touch anything," Garza said.

"When they came in, they cleaned for only twenty minutes. they got most of it, but I had to spend thirty to forty-five minutes and use three bottles of Lysol to get all of it off the couch."

Morrison said Housing is taking steps to reduce the problem.

"We've put together a committee to focus on the opening week where part of our agenda includes looking at how we can free up more people to walk through the buildings before opening weekend. In addition, we may start spreading out housing assignments to include buildings that would normally be vacated during the summer," Morrison said.

Penn said he felt the issue was satisfactorily resolved. "Because they came in and cleaned the mold the same day I put in a request, I'm satisfied," Penn said. "I'm still willing to consider on-campus housing in the future."