Carleton’s Residence Life staff held a feedback forum Oct. 22 to gather experiences from students about maintenance on residence.
Three students were in attendance.
Despite the small turnout, the residence staff received feedback on a number of different issues going on in some of the residences.
“This is the first time we’ve done this, or attempted to do it,” said Chad Mckenzie, manager of Residence Maintenance and Custodial Services. “We’re hoping to get feedback and maybe make this a monthly thing.”
Chris Mariano said he has lived in residence for four years. The environmental science student is currently a Frontenac residence fellow and said he has had no major issues with maintenance throughout his experience.
“The elevator breaks a lot but other than that the service has been great,” he said.
Mckenzie said one of the biggest issues, common from the start of the school year, has been the wait times to get something fixed.
“It’s something we are really trying to improve on and make better for students,” he said.
This was an issue for one of the students on Mariano’s floor, whose curtains fell down in September and were not fixed until three weeks later, he said, due to miscommunication among residence staff.
Some of the other student complaints included bad smells in some areas of residences, and faulty swipe card access from the tunnels.
He said there are many upgrades being planned for residences, including new furniture and better wireless internet, which, as some students said, is very slow.
Natalie Allan, assistant director of Residence Life Services, said there are many initiatives being put in place to reach out to students and better communicate with them when something needs to be fixed.
“We did an intake survey in the summer to find out where students are at,” she said. One of the ideas put forward was a better intake system for maintenance so that miscommunication issues don’t happen again.
“The experience is good. That’s why I’ve lived here for four years,” Mariano said.
