This semester, students living in several units in the University of Dallas Student Apartments have voiced concerns about mold problems in their apartment units. One apartment was acknowledged by Facilities as having concerning levels of mold spores, which the school aims to address.
Dr. Ben Gibbs, Executive Head of Facilities at UD, provided a definition of mold and the level at which it becomes problematic, known as indoor amplification.
“Generally speaking, mold and mildew are microscopic organisms that play an important role in the breakdown of plant and animal matter,” said Gibbs. “Mold is part of our natural environment […] There are thousands of known species of ‘mold,’ most of which exist outside a residence. While most mold is not harmful to healthy humans, spores can grow inside to levels that experts would call ‘amplification,’ including levels of ‘chronic indoor amplification,’ and need to be remediated.”
Gibbs’s response comes after a semester-long back-and-forth between Student Apartment residents and facilities. Some students who live in the apartments experienced mold spore-related symptoms soon upon moving in.
The semester had just begun when junior business major Cassie Barrows and her three roommates began to experience allergic symptoms. Barrows developed keratitis (eye inflammation) and experienced increased problems with her asthma, which was reportedly caused by mold.
Barrows had trouble getting a timely response to her work orders from Facilities. She contacted Dean Roper directly, and HES Facilities sent employees to clean the alleged affected areas..
When Barrows and her roommates were unsatisfied with the cleaning results, Facilities offered a full remediation, which requires students to be moved out of their apartment temporarily. “We had to move everything out,” said Barrows. “It was like moving back into a new apartment; it was awful. It took about two or three weeks for the clean and retest and then we were able to move back in.”
A resident of another apartment, junior English and Spanish major Jean Zaur, also experienced health issues upon move-in.
Zaur said: “When I moved into this apartment, I moved in a couple days after my other roommates, one of whom was already feeling sick and said, ‘yeah, when I showed up, the outside of all the air vents were black from mold.’ They got here and they cleaned off the mold and she was not feeling well. I moved in and I felt all of a sudden allergy-like symptoms, and I don’t really get seasonal allergies.”
Zaur’s apartment also received remediation treatment after the students and their parents requested it. Zaur advocated for a more proactive approach from UD, saying, “We need much less exciting renovations […] That would really bring up their student happiness level. It’s the day-to-day things that go unnoticed.”
In a third case, sophomore computer science major Adrian Panezic and his roommate Teddy Conboy, sophomore English major, found mold and water damage in their apartment upon moving into the Student Apartments. “The whole duct was fuzzy […] There is clear water damage throughout the apartment,” said Panezic.
After submitting a work order and being offered a mold test by Facilities, there was a delay: “We [waited] a week and nothing [happened],” Panezic said. Panezic then hired his own third-party contractor and submitted the test results to UD, seeking further aid.
The Housing department and Office of Student Life made arrangements for Conboy and Panezic to temporarily relocate to a suite in Clark Hall while Facilities performed extensive remediation.
Said Gibbs, “The Panezic apartment was where the mold test report noted elevated counts within the range of indoor amplification.” Gibbs noted that the mold test results of Barrows’s and Zaur’s respective apartments did not show spore counts in this range.
Following these cases and other concerns voiced by students, Student Government hosted a panel with Gibbs and Dean of Students Dr. Gregory Roper on mold concerns. Dr. Gibbs also promised a new UD mold policy, which is slated to be released over the Christmas break, to better address student concerns and lay out standard procedures for Facilities responses.
According to senior politics major and Student Government President Porter Schmidt, “SG has continued an open line of communication with Facilities on the issue through Treasurer Greg King and head of the Student Concerns Committee Senator Katherine Gonzalez.”
In an interview with the Cor Chronicle, Gibbs described Facilities’ process for receiving concerns, saying, “When students argue that there is mold or mildew in their apartment, they should expect a prompt response from our facilities team.” “If testing is necessary or requested, students should expect that the testing be completed by a third party vendor who is licensed to conduct such tests, through the coordination of the university’s facilities team,” Gibbs said.
Responding to Panezic’s case specifically, Gibbs said, “The process of evaluating, potentially testing and acting on any recommendations from an independent testing firm ultimately falls to the university’s facilities department, and our facilities department will only act on the recommendations of a test report issued by a licensed testing firm.”
As for the upcoming mold policy, Gibbs said that “The basic function of the indoor environmental policy is to make clear how community concerns can be reported, how they will be investigated and addressed, and what expectations students, faculty and staff should have throughout the process from reporting a concern to having that concern resolved. The policy document also outlines common questions and some academic literature on indoor environmental concerns.”
UD facilities expressed that their goal is to promptly and accurately address all student concerns about the condition of the dorms. Gibbs said, “Students should expect to live, study and pray in spaces that are clean and comfortable. If students feel that this is not the case, they can submit a work order to that effect or reach out to me or our facilities services team directly to voice their concern.”