In early October, College housing and facilities staff struggled to facilitate a process of cleaning an entire dorm affected by mold. Facilities staff needed to clean nearly every surface in Johnson House, and at various points, the REAL office temporarily relocated students to alternative housing for up to two days with less than a day’s notice. Unannounced inspections of student rooms by College staff found a high presence of mold. Students reported poor communication by the REAL office during many phases of the ordeal. In some cases, these unannounced visits resulted in students being “written-up” for violations of room conduct policy unrelated to the purpose of the inspections.
In an emailed statement Trina Learned, Associate Vice President for Facilities Management and Campus Planning, attributed the mold problem to HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems that could not handle a recent increase in regional humidity level– a problem faced by peer institutions including the Coast Guard Academy.
During individual room cleanings, each resident was required to vacate their room and temporarily move to Lazarus House for time periods ranging from 1-2 days while it was cleaned. The Voice spoke to nine Johnson residents; three residents stated that the housing (REAL) office and Facilities Management had dealt with the mold problem in ways that were poorly planned and unprofessional. Another student indicated that the offices had dealt with the issue in an “okay” manner but, like the other three interivewed students, expressed some misgivings about the offices’ process for dealing with the situation. The other five students felt that the response to the situation was adequate.
During the week after the College’s Fall Weekend, maintenance workers entered all rooms in Johnson to determine the scale of the mold.
One resident who experienced severe amounts of mold in their room claimed they were sick as a result, and that friends who entered their room became ill for the same reason. The student had contacted the REAL Office about moving out of their room but said that the solutions offered were unacceptable. They reported maintenance workers entering their room while they were napping. The workers told the student that they had knocked twice on the door prior to entering. The student said that they normally sleep lightly enough that they would likely have responded to someone knocking on the door, but on that day they had taken a sleep aid as a result of losing sleep from their illness, so it was possible that they were in such a deep sleep that they did not hear it. The student criticized the lack of advance notification. They questioned why the REAL Office or Facilities Management did not send an email at least a day prior to the inspections and noted that the maintenance workers could have opened the door as the student was changing their clothes.
Lydia Klein and Lucy Hindes ’22 felt the decision to inspect students’ rooms without prior notice violated their privacy. As a result of the inspection, Klein received a notice that she had violated the student code of conduct and was required to pay a $75 fine for having a string of lights attached to a sprinkler pipe in her room; other students have also allegedly received surprise conduct violations as a result of the inspections such as underage students who stored alcohol in their rooms.
Nearly every private and public space in Johnson House needed a thorough cleaning. In an email to Johnson residents, Learned and Sara Rothenberger, Assistant Dean of Residential Education and Living, noted that “All rooms surfaces…walls, ceiling, floor, shades, furniture…” would be cleaned. Ventilation units were to be “disassembled, sanitized, treated with the anti-microbial [disinfectant], then reassembled and inspected.”
Rooms were cleaned during the weeks before and after Fall Break. Students were required to move out of their rooms to temporary housing in Lazarus House while it occurred; they were instructed to take any outfits they would need in the next 48 hours–two days worth of clothes–and told that any clothes remaining would be removed and cleaned by a third-party dry cleaner. Klein and Hindes received an email on the Tuesday prior to Fall Break around 5:00 PM telling them to vacate their room in this manner by 9:00 AM the next day. However, they were also told that they would be unable to access their room in Lazarus until that same time as they needed to get a key from the REAL Office, which was closed until then. They reported that they received no support from the office for moving their things. Pols had a class at that time, so she could not move at the specified time without assistance from her roommates.
The evening they moved into Lazarus they received another email around 9:00 PM saying that their room in Johnson had been cleaned and they needed to move out of Lazarus by 6 AM the next morning (nine hours later) when the rooms there would be cleaned for the next set of students from Johnson. Fortunately they were able to borrow a friend’s truck to move back into Johnson.
The inconveniences continued for the three even when they moved back to Johnson. They were informed that–rather than having their washed clothes returned to them on Friday as originally promised–they would instead be returned a Saturday, the day after Fall Break began. Klein noted that she had already made plans to visit a friend rather than go home over break and was forced to buy new clothes as a result of this.
Klein described the events as “probably the worst week of my life.” As a result of her two moves in one day, Klein said that she had to ask a professor for an extension on a midterm assignment, something she was not accustomed to doing as a first-year college student; she reported that she received no support from the REAL Office in this matter. In terms of their overall reaction, Klein and Hinds noted that while they were glad the mold had been cleaned and understood that the situation needed to be dealt with, they felt it was handled poorly. Kay stated that “all students were able to work with their class deans to advocate for any class needs,” but based on the students’ statements it appears that the REAL Office may not have been making deans or professors aware of their students’ move out schedule.
In response to a question about why emails were sent to students less than twenty-four hours prior to their deadlines for moving out of and into their rooms, Kay stated that “The decision to do it this way was due to the schedule often changing. We didn’t want students to prepare to move one day only for them to move two days later instead.” Kay also added “We understand that at times this meant a quick turn around for students and can appreciate their difficulties.”
Even after students received their laundry, some reported missing items of clothing. The problem was apparently bad enough that the REAL Office shared a Google Sheets spreadsheet with all residents in order for them to report any missing items, so that the other residents who had received them could contact them and arrange to return them.
According to Kay, as a result of the incident, “All [Johnson] residents that are participating in residential lottery next year are receiving a 150 point deduction on top of any other deduction they are eligible for. The college is also making a $150 donation on the behalf of any senior in the building toward their senior week.”
The REAL Office is also compensating students who had lost or damaged items due to the mold or negligence of the third party companies involved; in one case, a student’s mattress pad was so moldy that it had to be disposed of by the cleaning company. However, students who wished to receive compensation were initially told they were required to submit receipts for their purchases to the REAL Office despite some of them having already repurchased lost items without retaining receipts. According to Kay “Any student that has an item that is lost or missing is welcome to submit a screenshot of what the item currently costs online. All of the information will be sent to Accounting who will make the final determination of reimbursements.” No student interviewed mentioned that this was an option, although the Voice did not interview any student impacted who mentioned that they lacked receipts.
Maria Ferreira ’21 reported that several of her outfits went missing as a result of the cleaning process. While she did not find getting reimbursed cumbersome, she was unhappy that her lost outfits were no longer available in stores or online.
All but one of the nine students interviewed felt that the REAL Office communicated at least parts of the process poorly to them. They referenced instances such as not responding to some of their emails about the problem as the cleaning progressed. One student noted that they also communicated with Mike Provost, Supervisor of Building Trades within Facilities Management, and said that the responses they received from both Provost and the REAL Office indicated that neither entity was entirely aware of how the other was responding to the problem. According to Hindes “Whenever I called I felt like they didn’t have any firm information they could give us; it just all felt really bureaucratic.” Kay stated that “The REAL Office did our best to communicate with students as information became available.”
As a result of the many complaints about the process, the REAL Office held a community meeting for Johnson residents on an evening after Fall Break. Both Rothenberger and Learned were present at this meeting. Kay stated “we gained some insight that will be helpful if something similar were to occur in the future. This includes assistance in temporary relocations as well as publishing a tentative moving schedule even if the dates must fluctuate.” Klein and Hindes described the meeting as tense, saying it was the first time some staff members, particularly those from the REAL Office, seemed apologetic for the first time. They noted, however, that staff seemed intent on establishing they were not at fault for the incident. They reported that Learned was particularly confrontational with students, at one point suggesting that they were at fault for the severity of the incident as they had not reported the problem to Facilities Management in a timely manner.
Klein and Hindes were concerned about what they did not know: what kind of mold was in Johnson, and whether or not the mold was a health risk. Learned, said that “mold was identified by visual inspection. No lab tests were done to determine its type.”
Affected students were not contacted by Student Health Services (SHS) about potential health effects. Senior Associate Dean of Student Life Sarah Rothenberger, who oversees SHS, explained this action, saying “I think [affected and unaffected] students know that they could go [to SHS or urgent care].”
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) website notes “certain molds are toxigenic, meaning they can produce toxins (specifically mycotoxins) [although mold on its own is not toxic].” All mold that can be seen or smelled may pose a health risk. A person’s susceptibility to mold related disease is dependent on their tolerance level and the type of mold present. Regarding mold found in private homes (the CDC’s website does not provide direct suggestions for college residence halls), the CDC usually does not recommend testing it as it is not a reliable method for determining individuals’ health risks, and there is no standard for what a tolerable level of mold is.
The three students, along with several other students the Voice interviewed, also questioned why the mold incident happened in the fall in the first place because they felt Facilities Management should have discovered the possibility of a mold incident to occur during its annual cleaning of the building this summer. Responding to a question about the maintenance of Johnson with regards to mold Learned stated that the maintenance process for student residences, which takes place between College Commencement and Reunion and again at the end of each summer “includes “a thorough inspection (furniture, windows and window shades, switches and lights, heating and air conditioning (AC in the Plex only), and smoke detection) to assess that all are intact and fully operable. Any deficiencies are corrected and each room is thoroughly cleaned.”
In response to a question about the potential for a similar incident to occur in housing within the next twelve months Learned wrote “Now that we are in heating season, the warm dry air has eliminated mold’s host environment. Facilities is working with engineers to modify HVAC systems, making them more responsive to counteracting the effects of prolonged high-humidity.” •
