A dozen Mitchell Hall residents said they have noticed mold in their dorm rooms, kitchens and common spaces this semester.
Three of the 12 students who said they found mold in Mitchell said they submitted FixIt requests about the fungus to the University. Facilities personnel investigated and mitigated the mold after receiving their reports, the students said.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian said since August the University has received a “handful” of FixIt requests from Mitchell Hall residents for “separate incidents” of mold and mildew. Officials are considering renovating Mitchell in the future as part of the University’s ongoing residence hall refurbishment plans, she said.
“GW takes reports of suspected mold very seriously,” Metjian said in an email. “When a FixIt ticket is submitted about suspected mold, it receives an emergency priority code and a Facilities technician will respond within 24 hours to conduct an initial inspection of the area.”
First-year Isabella Perryman said after she developed a cough and sore throat within two weeks of moving into her Mitchell Hall room, she and her roommate Kiki Steinberg ordered mold test kits because they suspected their “dirty” ceilings and air vents contained mold. She said within eight days of placing the petri dishes on her dresser in October, mold swabs from her window sill grew into yellow, white and black swaths of fur, overtaking the dish.
Perryman said the University in October removed the mold in her room after she and Steinberg submitted a dozen FixIt requests, posted viral TikToks about the mold and urged their parents to call the University. Perryman said before facilities workers removed the mold, a doctor diagnosed her with a “severe” mold allergy in October, and she and Steinberg relocated to a hotel.
The pair said in an Oct. 26 TikTok with 29,000 views that members of GW Facilities said they would replace the “brown” ceiling tiles in their room and clean out the air conditioning unit.
Perryman and Steinberg said facilities replaced their ceiling tiles, repainted the walls and replaced the HVAC in their room between Oct. 27 and Oct. 30. The University reimbursed her for the hotel with a housing credit of between $700 and $800, Steinberg said.
Eighth-floor resident Daniel Monk said the day they moved into Mitchell Hall, “dark” mold covered their mattress and coated the HVAC unit. Monk said they submitted a FixIt “so quickly” because they have asthma and didn’t want the mold to cause health issues. Monk said FixIt workers removed the mold from the room that day.
“The room was just disgusting, in horrible condition,” Monk said. “It looked like it hadn’t been touched in years, like it was horrible.”
Junior Stella Holmes, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was cooking in the communal kitchen in October when she opened the cabinet and found that it was “covered in green.”
She said she did not submit a FixIt request, but two days later, the communal kitchen cabinets were “renovated” on all the floors in Mitchell Hall.
Sophomore Olivia Campbell said when she moved into her Mitchell Hall room on the fourth floor she found mold growing on a piece of paper in her closet. She said she was “in shock” after finding the moldy paper but did not report her discovery and instead threw the paper away.
In 2019, officials relocated summer Mitchell residents after maintenance workers discovered mold on the fourth and seventh floors. Displaced residents relocated to Thurston Hall for the rest of the term and received a $525 housing credit as reimbursement.
Khanh Dang contributed reporting
