Jewell Hall is the newest residence hall on campus and was, for a time, an all-freshman dorm. Some students, including sophomore accounting major Elijah Meyer, believed the dorm was catered to freshmen because it was the newest. Considering the condition of the other dormitories, a clean and new dorm should, in theory, have the best luck in capturing the interest of prospective students and retaining freshmen. However, Jewell has one major problem: mildew.
Jewell residents have dealt with this problem for over a year. This time last year the growth was as at its worst. Despite cleaning efforts, some students claim that the mold is still present, even after the college hired a professional cleaning crew, Peerless Cleaning and Restoration, to take care of it. The mildew problem causes some residents to have allergy-related issues, which can negatively affect students academically and forced students to temporarily move out for the winter break to allow repairs on the building and furniture damage.
According to Jewell resident assistant Andrea Weeks, all of the mattresses in Jewell had to be thrown out last winter break. Weeks helped with their disposal. Peerless Cleaning and Restoration was supposed to completely get rid of the mildew problem, not temporarily fix it. According to Vice President for Administration and Finance Steve Morris, it cost the college $146,000 to hire them.
New projects are currently under development to combat the mildew problem. Morris outlined what needs to happen to fix the issue. “What our investigation has led us to is that the A/C units are too large and cool the rooms too rapidly,” he said. The current plan is to retrofit the units to fix the mildew issue over the 2018 summer break. Morris also said that he is unsure of what this project this will cost at this time.
While some returning students have fears of mildew within the building, resident director Alondra Olvera has not heard anything. Morris encourages students who have mildew issues to talk to their resident assistant or resident director to get a work order in the system so the problem can be taken care of.