Three weeks after Falcon Media made the public aware of mold issues in MacDonald Hall, Falcon Media received the status of maintenance work orders placed in BGSU residence halls. 

Falcon Media obtained a complete list of work orders placed in all residence halls from August 2022 through January 2023. Of these orders, the vast majority of orders were listed as having been completed. Several orders were listed to have “scheduled” dates for pending completion. 

According to BGSU, Campus Operations receives around 2,300 work orders monthly on average. 

“Most work orders can be completed within the same day depending on the nature of the request; remaining orders are typically completed within three to five days assuming the requisite supplies, materials and labor are readily available,” a BGSU rep said. 

According to BGSU, Campus Operations “provides 24/7 service to the BGSU community. BGSU said that there are 168 employees who “work tirelessly to ensure a safe, clean and well-maintained environment.” 

However, students at BGSU have voiced various concerns about maintenance practices on campus. 

Julia Barnett, a second-year media production major, struggled to coordinate with her hall director, maintenance and pest control after she spotted a mouse in her Offenhauer dorm. 

After Barnett saw the mouse run and hide in her dorm room, she went to the front desk for assistance. Offenhauer’s hall director came up to the room to inspect the situation. That same night, maintenance set up one trap in the room. 

According to Barnett, the hall director told her explicitly that pest control would be able to come into the dorm room without her or her roommate being there. She was disappointed when she heard back in an email that said pest control did not enter the room, on the basis that neither roommate was present. 

“I wish they would have let pest control in because I told the hall director they have the full range of the room… come on in, do whatever you need to, and my roommate was on board with everything, and they still didn’t come in like they said they would,”  Barnett said. 

BGSU’s policy requires a student to be present in the dorm room for maintenance order competitions, except in emergency situations. 

Noelle Adams, a second-year political science, philosophy, economics and law major, says that maintenance requests got a “quick response” when she lived in Founders her first year. Now in Offenhauer, she is frustrated that her maintenance request to get broken blinds fixed was never answered. 

“There was such a quick response when I was in Founders, and now, being in a bigger building like Offenhauer…I’m pretty sure your [maintenance requests] can be easily overlooked,” Adams said. 

A representative from Campus Operations confirmed that “all work orders are processed on a first in, first out basis regardless of building.” 

Another student, second-year environmental science major Elizabeth Ham has had success utilizing maintenance request services several times this year at Falcon Heights. When her suite had a sink drainage problem, and a burnt-out lightbulb, maintenance responded within 24 hours and solved the problem. 

“It’s definitely very helpful because I literally know how to fix nothing. So having them here and [them] knowing the specifics of the building…it’s very helpful,” Ham said. 

However, when Ham and her roommates had issues with the shower drain in their second bathroom, Ham noticed that the maintenance worker did not seem to know what work order they were responding to when they instead started tinkering with a light in one roommate’s personal room. 

“There was this one [time] where…he came in, and started to go in [the roommate’s] room, and he thought that the problem was the lightbulb or something, and he started unscrewing her light…and I had to be like oh the request was for [the shower drain],” Ham said. 

Vivian Traficanti is a second-year inclusive childhood education major living in Founders. When Traficanti noticed mold in the shower at the beginning of the year, she placed a maintenance order to have it removed. Because she was “grossed out,” Traficanti and her roommate cleaned the mold before the order was filled. When maintenance arrived three days later, they said they couldn’t do much since the mold was no longer visible. 

“They didn’t want to really do anything about it…they said the one thing they could do was re-caulk over the corners and stuff…but it wasn’t a huge priority for them since they couldn’t physically see the mold when they came,” Traficanti said. 

Traficanti and her roommate think that the mold is coming from behind the old caulking, and will continue to be a problem unless they continue a strict cleaning regimen. They both find it more reliable to stick to their own methods instead of coordinating with maintenance. 

“We try to come up with our own solutions,” Traficanti said. “I wish you could schedule an appointment time with them…sometimes, we would have to work out who’s going to be in the dorm at what time; is someone going to be here to let them in? They can’t actually do anything unless you’re actually there.” 

Residence Life encourages students to utilize maintenance services as needed, and students can submit a service request through the Campus Services webpage.