Photo courtesy of Jackie Chalghin.
The Ridges have a certain reputation. For many students, the apartments conjure images of athletic upperclassmen, limited Campus Safety patrol, raucous Friday nights. It is not just the culture of the apartments, steadily built over years, that lend it a particular mystique. It is also their physical placement, across the highway that separates them from our main campus. On a campus where nothing takes more than fifteen minutes to walk, those units are accessible only (safely) by a trek, pedestrian footbridge, then another trek. As always with “reputations,” if not totally incorrect, they never offer the complete truth. Away from the main campus—and out of sight for touring parents—the apartments also carry a host of health and safety risks.
The start of the fall semester was characterized by tropical storms and flash floods. On several occasions, the entire student body was warned to limit time outdoors and keep electronics charged in the case of a power outage. For residents living across the street in what are formally known as the River Ridge Apartments, a hypothetical power outage would seem edenic compared to the reality some experienced.
Early in the first month of school, residents of Ridge 17 experienced severe flooding in the basement level of their home, which houses the bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry room. Water soaked not only the ground, but leaked in through walls, dampening much of the surface area within the basement. One resident, Alexa Beckstein ‘22, grew concerned that the water buildup in the laundry room might cause an electrical fire. While unplugging the machines out of fear for her and her roommates’ safety, she was electrocuted. All the while, the water buildup was growing to be a few inches high in some areas. The situation was unmanageable.
Residents of the Ridge contacted Campus Safety first. They called four times before getting through to an officer, who responded, “We’ll send someone when we get the chance.” The officer further instructed the students to “mop [the water] up with a spare towel.” Residents felt the officer was not understanding the severity of the situation—this was not a spill, it was a flood. When the residents threatened to call the New London fire department instead, Campus Safety sent a member of the facilities team, who arrived at the apartment within twenty minutes.
Facilities soon vacuumed the water, and laid down towels on the ground of the affected areas and under beds. The residents were instructed to leave the towels on the ground so that they might soak up any additional incoming water. Something about towels, however, is that when they are exposed to prolonged periods of wetness, they grow mold. Something about mold is that it can be relatively slow to grow, to spread, and to reveal itself. When another resident of the Ridge with a mold allergy—who asked to remain anonymous—started breaking out in hives, she was perplexed. It did not take her roommates long after that to pinpoint the cause of her allergic reaction.
This time, residents of the Ridge contacted not only facilities, as well as Dean of Students Victor Arcelus and Assistant Dean for Residential Education and Living Sara Rothenberger. Like the Campus Safety officers before them, Beckstein felt members of administration were not treating the matter with due urgency, or understanding the depth of its ramifications.
Deans offered the empty Knowlton ballroom, recently converted into a six person dorm, as an alternative living option until the mold was cleared. Residents of Ridge 17 asked if they could move into an empty Ridge apartment on their street; students who opt to live in spaces with a kitchen, like the Ridges, are offered only a partial meal plan, and Knowlton is a kitchenless dorm building on the main campus. Administrators declined their request, their reason being that the empty Ridge is potential quarantine housing for students who test positive for Covid-19. The quarantine Ridge remained empty for the duration of their trials, which included trips to Urgent Care for the student with the mold allergy.
What frustrates Beckstein most is that the entire ordeal, beginning with the flooding, was preventable. The River Ridge apartments have a history of structural instability. Built decades ago to temporarily house faculty members, the apartments were never meant for such protracted use. Beckstein spoke to residents of Ridge 17 from two and three years ago—all of them experienced flooding. This suggests that this particular issue is longstanding, that the college is aware, and that no long-term solutions have been implemented.
In an issue of The College Voice from 2001, staff writers reported on two students being severely injured when a Ridge balcony collapsed. They fell fifteen feet. One student broke their arm, and another injured their skull. Students also cite experiences where they send maintenance requests, only to receive slow responses or none at all. Maintenance requests seem to have a quicker turnaround, as Beckstein often cites gratitude for the respectful members of the facilities department who entered their apartment.
It is now the administration who is slow to respond or does not respond at all. Residents of Ridge 17 reached out to Rothenberger about potential compensation for damaged personal property. They also requested a meeting with her directly to discuss long-term solutions for flooding. Rothenberger said she would follow up, then never did.
Rothenberger declined a request for an interview and suggested reaching out to Head of Facilities Tom Hobaica and Vice President Rich Madonna. I emailed them both clearly requesting an interview for a Voice article. Hobaica responded by outlining the process of submitting a maintenance service request, and Madonna responded by saying that any issues with housing should be addressed in a work order to facilities.
The recent flooding and mold outbreak in Ridge 17 is part of a longer historical trend that points to the uninhabitability of the River Ridge apartments. Over the years, safety concerns have accumulated in regards to dorm infrastructure across campus. Connecticut College prides itself on being 99% residential, a fact which they claim fosters its tight-knit community. Maybe so, but more for the reason that just about every Conn student living on campus has their own housing horror story to share.
