Despite complaints about water damage and mold in residence halls, administrators do not believe there are any reasons students should be overly concened.

Chad Miller, residential facilities maintenance supervisor, said even though there has been an increase in Physical Plant service requests with the heavy rain, it is no cause for concern.

“We don’t get a lot of calls and the ones we do get we take them on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Senior Christin Turmail said she has filed a number of complaints with different campus departments, but her university-owned house on Weinbach still has mold problems.

“We don’t know who to talk to because we told the maintenance people so many times but nothing ever happens,” she said.

Turmail’s roommate, senior Brittany Tenbarge, said her apartment last year in the University duplexes also had mold, and the situation was resolved by moving her to another apartment.

She said this year she found mold spores surrounding air vents in the apartment and, because of her allergies, she finds it difficult to stay healthy.

“You’re just breathing it in at all times,” Tenbarge said. “I feel like it’s everywhere.”

Turmail said the problem is evident, most notably the stench.

“There is a huge musty smell; it smells like an old church,” she said. “You can smell it right when you walk in.”

Tenbarge said the last big rain resulted in visible water damage to the ceiling and maintenance workers told her it appeared to have occurred many times.

Turmail said she was told that they could pour bleach on the mold, but that would not affect the source.

“They’re not going to solve the problem,” she said.

Tenbarge said they were expecting UE to provide a dehumidifier, but they have yet to hear back from anyone.

Larry Horn, facilities management director, said Physical Plant’s goal is not to find a temporary solution.

“Our intention is to control the source, to control any leaks or excess water,” he said. “We try to take care of it as quickly as possible so that mold doesn’t have the opportunity to form.”

Junior Lisa Thompson said she noticed mold in her Morton Hall room right after moving in earlier this semester.

“The ceiling was caving in; it was falling apart,” she said. “It was like a sponge.”

Thompson said her resident assistant also inspected the area and accidently poked a hole through the ceiling.

Thompson and her roommate were told they could move into another room in Morton, but they found it had similar problems and were given a room in Schroeder Hall.

Mike Tessier, associate dean of students and director of residence life, said the problem was caused by a leaky water pipe and currently no students are living in the room.

Thompson said the room’s conditions were too intolerable to live there.

“It was just gross,” she said. “The smell was obvious. I’m sure the ceiling would have eventually fallen in on us.”

Senior Marianne Miller said early in the semester she noticed a crack in the ceiling of her on-campus apartment that had not previously been there. She said she filed a request with Physical Plant, but workers informed her there was no problem. She said about two days later one-third of her ceiling collapsed.

“I heard a noise and I was like, ‘What is that?’ It sounded like a rat,” Marianne Miller said. “But the crack had turned into a crevice.”

She said insulation covered the room and a piece of tile fell on another student.

Tessier said the exact problem could not be determined but the ceiling had been weakened for some reason.

“It was very difficult to predict that,” he said.

Marianne Miller said she believed it was because of the building’s age.

“Should we have students in buildings that are that old?” she said. “Could it have been prevented?”

Tessier said the problem is dampness in the air, not housing. But he said UE is always looking to renovate the older buildings with these issues.

“Every year we make updates and expansions and do things to make village properties more updated,” he said. “But that does take time.”

In repairing the problem, Marianne Miller said administrators were helpful—replacing the bedding that was damaged and quickly fixing the ceiling.

“It was such a bizarre situation,” she said. “The university has been very good at getting back to me. If there was any negligence it was in the past. They handled it very well.”

Chad Miller said the best way to file a complaint is online at residencelife.evansville.edu under “Hall Services.”

“The less hands it has to travel through, the better,” he said.