An uphill battle

Living in the dorms may seem like living in an ant farm at times, but living in the Student Apartments is not as glamorous as it may seem either. While students living in the dorms may be envious of the added amenities such as a bathroom and a kitchen, they may be surprised at the amount of upkeep is required to keep the 166 apartments in livable condition.

Living in the dorm means having a DSW keep your environment neat and tidy for you, living in the Student Apartments means having to do a lot more cleaning yourself, and if there is a problem that you cannot fix yourself, then you need to submit a work order.  

Janette Wiggett, University Apartments Manager says, "Obtaining student feedback and having clear, easily accessible channels to hear student concerns is something we are always trying to improve. We currently rely on our online work order submissions to learn of a portion of the maintenance concerns students are having in their living space."

The work order system is imperfect though. When asking Student Apartments resident Shianna Bissen what her biggest complaint about living in the apartments was she responded, "We put in work orders numerous times for our tub and sink backing up with water. They come, don't fix anything, and we still have the problem. Plus the water they expect us to shower in is dirty and brown and full of unidentifiable substances."

According to the PSU Physical Plant web page, the non-traditional student apartments (1-30) were built in 1968, original style White Mountain Apartments (44-102) in 1977, and the remaining apartments (31-42, 103-166) in 1989-1990. The apartments may be beginning to show their age, with their last major overhaul being the HEHFA (Higher Education and Health Finance Authority) Project which ran from summer 2001 to summer 2002.

The HEHFA project improved the apartments by upgrading wiring for phone, cable, and internet, putting in new sprinkler and fire alarm systems, new glass for windows, new exterior doors, and many other necessary changes. However, that last major overhaul was almost 10 years ago. Now, there are issues in the apartments that need to be updated again. For example, a recent ongoing upgrade is the installation of a wireless network throughout the apartments.

As for complaints about the brown water, that may not be an easy fix. Associate Director of Residential Life for Residential North, Tom Weeks, says that since the years when he lived in the apartments back in the early nineties, the water always had a yellow tinge to it, and students were always told that it was "just the Plymouth water."

The problem has been determined to be manganese in the water. It's safe, and it's been tested repeatedly. It's just aesthetically disturbing to shower in water that does not look clean. Weeks said, "About 2 years ago, we noticed that there were pockets of apartments that were getting very brown water, so physical plant brought some engineers in, we investigated it, talked to the town of Plymouth, and it was determined that it was the manganese."

Weeks explained how the manganese in the water that the Student Apartments uses from Plymouth is building up in the pipes within the complex. When the water is going through the pipes, sometimes a thin layer of manganese will start to flake off, and it doesn't take a lot of manganese to make the water extremely brown.

Weeks says, "Physical Plant has designed a schedule to actually flush all of the pipes within the complex to try and alleviate the brown water surges that we're having. So every two to three months the town of Plymouth will come in and open up hydrants and really flush all the lines out. They try to do that when it will be the least inconvenient for students." The pipes are typically flushed right before students come back in September, over Thanksgiving break, and during Winterim when there are fewer students on campus.

When I asked Janette Wiggett if she believed that residents in the apartments may choose to disrespect their environment because they feel it is already run-down to begin with, she agreed. Wiggett explained that one of the greatest challenges in the Student Apartments is that projects are always ongoing, but it helps the students see that changes are consistently being made all around them.

The online work order system can sometimes be a flawed system, and Wiggett emphasizes that students shouldn't hesitate to bring up work order requests in person. She says, "Face to face contact with our residents is essential in order to really get to know our community. We're making efforts to be out and about visiting apartments to learn of student concerns; we also encourage students to visit us in Centre Lodge." 

Student Apartment residents with a request, question, or concern can visit the Centre Lodge, staffed with Apartment Community Advisors Mon. – Fri. 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday noon to 9:30 p.m., and Sun. noon to 11 p.m.