A boost in facilities requests this fall has resulted in a month of waiting for students facing problems with their residence halls.
Senior Associate Vice President of Operations Alicia Knight said there has been a “slight” increase in the number of requests due to the hurricane and early move-in, which prevented facilities from resolving issues after the pre-move-in inspection.
University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard declined to comment on the number of requests received this fall, saying, “we are not going to provide the figures due to the fact that we do not think this adds to the story.”
Knight said facilities has resolved about 95 percent of work requests from move in, plowing through 250 requests per day. Most of the time, work requests are handled in four to five days, but Knight said during move in, the wait time can be up to 10 days for non-emergency requests.
At the Student Association’s housing town hall last week, Director of Facilities Management Jim Schrote said the University received 900 furniture-related requests this semester, far outpacing anecdotal records from past years. This is the first year an official count was kept, Schrote said.
“As with all types of requests, we must prioritize furniture requests that are submitted and, as such, requests for missing or broken furniture are handled in advance of elective requests, such as those for a different type [or] style of furniture,” Knight said. A small number of furniture-related requests have been complaints of missing or broken items, Knight said. She declined to provide a breakdown of requests.
Sophomore and Munson resident Ben Kasdan put in a FIXit request for an improperly working drain in his bathroom and a broken light fixture at the end of August.
Kasdan said, until his parents contacted the University about the issues, he received no response from FIXit about when the problems would be resolved.
“I get why it’s taking a while, but it’s still not right,” he said.
Sophomore Michelle Whelan said she arrived on campus a week before classes began to find her room in Fulbright Hall was missing a shower rod. She also called facilities but never heard back and had to purchase one.
Associate Dean of Students Tim Miller is aware that some students feel their FIXit requests have been ignored. At both town hall meetings, Miller urged students to contact the Center for Student Engagement with issues about their requests.
Although his office has no formal involvement with FIXit, Miller said he wanted to make sure students’ concerns were addressed.
