JOR 221 Project 6
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Mold in Residence Halls
By: Caitlyn Picard
Students recently reported mold in some residence halls, including Fayeweather Hall and Dorr Hall.
It is easy for the mold to grow in bathrooms because bathrooms have constant moisture in them as well as organics, it is easy for the mold to find somewhere to latch on to and grow.
“There’s what appears to be mold, black mold, in some of the bathrooms,” said Edward Roach, a Fayeweather Hall Resident. “I’ve talked to RA’s about it and they don’t seem to care. It’s been an ongoing problem since I moved in in September. It’s something that they need to do something about. It may be a health hazard, I’m not sure, but I’m hoping that they fix it before I move out.”
A similar event has happened to Theresa Troung, a Dorr Hall Resident. She explained that some of her friends have complained of mold in the building.
“It’s kind of concerning,” said Troung. “I hope that the University and housing are doing all they can to take care of the issue because it can be bad once it turns to black mold and dangerous for everyone’s health.”
“What we do is we are in the bathrooms, we clean them, we have moldicides that we use,” Jeffrey Plouffe, the associate director of housing and residential life, explained. “We learned that bleach doesn’t work, people thought that it worked but what actually happens if you put bleach on mold, it causes spores to be released. It’s a defensive posture of mold. So we got advice from Grangers for the best products to use and now every housekeeper has moldicides that they use.”
Plouffe also said that main issues they find with mold is that it tends to grow more in bathrooms where students clean them. He explained that it might be because they don’t really know what to look for or how to properly clean to keep the mold at bay.
The only recent case of mold that had been reported outside bathrooms was during move in at Fayeweather Hall. Fayeweather, as well as a few other halls, are completely shut in the summer giving mold the chance to grow as new air is not circulated and moisture from hot summer days gets trapped inside the halls. Due to the hall being closed, mold had the chance to grow, and a student came to move in and had a reaction because of a mold allergy.
“Mold in it of itself is not a pathogen for most people,” Plouffe said. “If you have a compromised immune system, if you have an allergy, if someone was allergic to pollen, they would have a reaction and the same is true with mold. The best measure to see if there is mold is when someone has an allergy to it, they can feel it when no one else even knows its there.”
The university brought in outside companies to test and treat the mold that was found to be in the rug of one of the hallways of Fayeweather and offered for the student to be relocated. Since the rug has been treated, there have not been any reports in that area of the dorm.
Plouffe said that if any student thinks they have mold in their room, bathroom, or hallway, they should get in touch with HRL customer service at 401-874-4151 or tell a housekeeper as soon as possible so that it can be taken care of before it becomes an issue to people’s health.