Students living in Glengarry House have expressed concerns about the living conditions of the residence in a petition posted Nov. 6 on Change.org.
The petition had 253 supporters at the time of publication. It was started by Jacob Allin, a first-year political science student.
The petition mentions an insect problem in the building, as well as damaged floors and ceilings as a result of pipes bursting on the fifth and sixth floors of the residence.
“I started the petition because I was in contact with housing maintenance and I wasn’t getting the help and the repairs that the building needed, especially with the bugs issue,” Allin said. “The pipes didn’t affect me near my floor, but that was the last straw.”
Allin said the burst pipes resulted in leaking from the ceilings that extended from the sixth floor to the second floor of the residence. He added the pipes were broken for about a week until housing repaired them. The petition also stated there is a widespread insect problem in the building.
“The bug issue has been going on right from the very first day I moved in,” Allin said.
He added he has seen cockroaches in the elevators of the building, as well as the cafeteria. A bed bug outbreak on the fifth floor of the building required chemical spraying.
Krista Balachorek, a first-year criminology student who lives on the second floor of Glengarry, said she has not seen any bugs or cockroaches herself, but said the upper floors have issues with pests.
Balachorek said her floor was flooded when the pipes burst.
“You’d see housing working on it but the next day it would just be worse,” she said, adding that parts of the ceilings on her floor began collapsing.
Housing director Laura Storey said she does not think the insect complaint is a widespread problem and the claims of cockroaches running rampant in the building are false.
“There was a claim on there that there were cockroaches, that is not true at all,” she said. “The cafeteria is inspected regularly, there are absolutely no cockroaches there.”
Balachorek said she was also concerned about being exposed to disturbed asbestos because of the flooding.
“As stated in the residence contract this building contains asbestos,” the petition reads. “It would appear that damage to the ceiling and floor as a result of the pipe bursting will likely result in asbestos being released into the air.”
Storey said there is no risk of asbestos exposure.
“We had environmental health and safety check and there is no asbestos in the damaged area at all,” she said. “There may be asbestos in the building, however, it is not airborne, which means it is not a risk to students.”
Storey added she believes housing responded to the complaints in a timely manner. She said a plumber arrived immediately on Nov. 6 after reports emerged of the pipes bursting.
But Allin said he thinks housing should have dealt with the complaints of students better.
“I felt the response from housing was lacking,” he said. “I think the bugs issue should be taken as a building-wide issue and addressed as such.”
Storey said housing will be investing money to update the residence of Glengarry in the few coming years, and the building will be given a freshening up during the upcoming summer.
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