Wittenberg upperclassmen and Residence Life both team up to fix any concerns about living in rental properties on campus. Maggi Quigley, class of 2015, has lived in two houses since her move in at Wittenberg and both of her houses have had issues.
Her first apartment had bed bugs, which caused her first housemate to move from their first apartment to Sprecher apartments. After finding the bed bugs she couldn’t get in contact with Residence Life due as it was the weekend.
“I fogged my apartment twice and washed everything I could immediately,” stated Quigley.
Quigley contacted Jeanne Riedel, coordinator of rental properties, who sent out a pest control service. The pest control service confirmed that Quigley did have bed bugs and cockroaches in her apartment.
“What should students do if they have bed bugs? I really appreciate it when students let us know right away,” stated Mark DeVilbiss, associate dean for residence life.
Although this was handled, Quigley still had to take it upon herself and spend $200 of her own money and take her belongings to Plum Laundry after the bed bugs and cockroaches were discovered.
“It was super expensive washing and packing all of my things, because anything with cardboard had to be thrown out, so I had to buy trash bags and big plastic bins; it adds up,” said Quigley. She was not reimbursed any money.
The second apartment she moved into was infested with mold and had a cracked pipe.
“I noticed my carpet was wet and not drying out. I went to the basement of the property, and there was water everywhere,” said Quigley.
She then went to Riedel who called Physical Plant; they went to the property immediately. After some investigation, Physical Plant determined that there was a large pipe in between the kitchen wall and bedroom that was leaking from the upstairs apartment. The pipe was repaired shortly after.
“The Physical Plant workers were outstanding; they really deserve a lot for all they do at Witt,” said Quigley. Mold began to develop with the wet carpet, which was taken care of promptly because of her severe allergies.
According to DeVilbiss both issues were reported late this summer. Wittenberg does inspect each rental property twice a year, once each semester.
When it comes to students worrying about rental properties on campus, all of the university owned properties are full, causing Residence Life to allow students to rent off campus housing. This happened at the end of housing lottery last April due to 500 more students being in the lottery than available houses.
“In 10 years this was the first time we ran out of rental properties for students,” said Riedel. Any students that live off campus and have any maintenance issues within their homes must contact their landlords for them to be resolved.
“Keep calm and report things,” said DeVilbiss, “It’s the best way to handle a situation.”
Residence Life encourages all students to come to them with concerns about their housing.
