Between 2012 and 2017, Ohio University’s Facilities Management received 2,600 work orders. 58 percent of those orders were submitted because of an issue within a residence hall.
Students, faculty members and staff members can submit maintenance requests through Facilities Management if there is an issue in a building on campus. Steve Wood, the associate vice president for Facilities Management and Safety, said work orders can be made by phone or submitted online.
“When (the work order) is received, … it is farmed out to the appropriate shop or technical experts for our review,” Wood said.
Of the work orders submitted between 2012 and 2017, 166 of them were for issues of mold within a residence hall. If a work order states there is mold in a residence hall, the environmental health and safety department follows up to verify.
“Usually Nathan Rath, (the environmental safety coordinator), would be one of our first responders,” Wood said. “He would go out and actually validate if there is mold. It could be dust, dirt or a number of other factors.”
Of the work orders during the same time period, 226 orders contained the word “bug” or “cockroach.” 33 contained the words “bed bugs,” but not all of those were confirmed to be bed bug outbreaks.
If there is a pest issue in a residence hall, OU Facilities Management and Safety has different ways to handle those issues, Chad Keller, the environmental health coordinator, said.
“It depends on the situation,” Keller said. “For the more routine issues, we deal with them in-house. For non-routine issues or issues we can't handle within a house, we have contractors that we bring in.
Hannah Rastatter, a junior studying nutrition, said the number of work orders submitted because of problems within the dorms seems high.
“I never submitted any work orders while I lived in the dorms,” she said.
Of the residence halls on campus, Bromley Hall has the most work orders at 105; Sargent Hall, Dougan House, Boyd Hall and Smith House round out the top five.
“The size of Bromley is definitely contributing to its preponderance,” Wood said. “I am not aware of any other issues that are driving it as a problem area that we need to concentrate on.”
After Rath assesses the situation, he lets the appropriate departments within Facilities Management and Safety know what action needs to be taken, Wood said.
Alaina Falbo, an undecided freshman, has not had to submit a work order yet.
“So far, I am happy with my dorm experience,” she said.
Some work orders have more precedence than others depending on what kind of order it is classified as, Wood said.
“We have goals of an immediate work order needs to be addressed within 24 hours, an urgent work order needs to be addressed within 72 hours and a routine matter needs to be dealt with within 45 days,” Wood said.
