Laundry in college is already chaotic enough without the ceiling falling down on you. Yet this past month on Sept. 28, that is exactly what happened in Jerome Hall.
“There was one student in the laundry room at the time, but he was out of harm’s way,” said junior history major Max Muth, one of Jerome Hall’s RAs. Muth was the first to arrive on the scene.
News quickly spread throughout campus by word of mouth. With the news came a rumour that some unknown students’ supposed hobby of crawling through the ceiling had caused the collapse. “We don’t know what caused the collapse to happen,” said Muth, “what we know for certain is that, contrary to popular belief, people were not crawling through the ceiling.”
As the unexpected burial of the laundry machines rendered them out of order, the approximately 90 Jerome residents found themselves with no way to do their laundry in nearly 100 degree weather.
In response, OSL gave the Jerome residents access to Augustine Hall’s laundry machines through the east side co-ed door to accommodate their laundry needs while their laundry room underwent repairs.
OSL west side Residence Coordinator Andrew von Weber Hahnsberg updated Augustine residents of this change on Sept. 29 via email, adding that Augustine residents should keep the doors to their hallways locked to ensure their safety. He apologized for any inconvenience, and assured residents this change would only last a short while. Upon finding out, Augustine residents’ reactions ranged from upset to concerned.
“Definitely I was really upset when I saw the email that they would be using our laundry just because again I thought it would be awful and chaotic and just a big fat mess,” said sophomore history and business major Izzy Escobar.
Other residents were concerned about the safety aspect of letting 90 Jerome residents have free access to a co-ed dorm.
Lorelei Hoff, sophomore English major and female resident of Augustine said, “It is already a co-ed dorm, and the entire dorm is connected by the front stairwell by the communal laundry room. But I wouldn’t have minded if a little bit more thought had been put into the process. The boys were given access to the door that was not only furthest away from their own dorm, but was the same door that the girls had access to get into their rooms. I don’t feel unsafe or anything. I just […] feel like my safety was not considered thoroughly. They should have direct access to the top floor because that’s where the guys are. They should have indirect access to the bottom floor because that’s where the girls are.”
As the days passed though, the situation stabilized.
“Overall, shockingly I would say there wasn’t that much of a difference,” said Escobar. “I always had opportunities to do my laundry as per normal which honestly surprised me quite a lot. I was expecting it to be full blown chaos. I suppose for the Jerome residents it is a bit of a walk to do with a big bucket of laundry. Not much of a difference except there was one part where some random [clothes] were just sitting there.”
Hoff extended her sympathies to the laundry room situation and said, “I think the most important thing is there wasn’t a group of 60 guys who smelled terrible because they couldn’t do laundry for a month. That is the worst case scenario, objectively. Like that stinks. […] They had rotten luck with dorms. It stinks if you’re not able to do normal things that you do pay for.”
The effects of the situation on the Jerome residents varied.
Undeclared freshman Francis Depew’s experience may explain the relative calmness that Escobar was so surprised by. “I actually had done laundry soon before it happened and then did it accidentally before the all clear, so I never used Augustine. I guess it just didn’t affect my life much.”
Some residents experienced otherwise according to Escobar, who said, “I know there was one of the freshmen boys in student gov who I was talking with whose laundry was actually stuck in there while they were fixing the roof.”
On Oct. 5, a week after the collapse, Andrew von Weber Hahnsberg informed Jerome and Augustine residents that the Jerome Laundry room had been cleaned and assessed as safe to use.
OSL removed Augustine’s east-side door from Jerome residents’ Verkada accounts, resolving the situation entirely.
As of now, half of Jerome’s laundry room still has no ceiling tiles, but Muth said, “CBRE [facilities] […] will be replacing the ceiling tiles at some point in the near future.”