Maintenance in dorm rooms make students uneasy

The Residential Living and Learning Department has added several new student maintenance positions this semester despite safety concerns from dorm residents.

Dorm residents should prepare to see more of their fellow classmates tending to work orders this year. Knowing student maintenance staff members can enter a resident's room makes several students uneasy. The fact some student maintenance cannot be properly identified when they knock on your front door makes residents nervous as well.

"I understand the anxiety that this may bring," assistant director to the Residential Living and Learning Department, Haley Jobe said. "Maintenance is an essential need in housing in order to fix the problems that can occur. They work all over campus, so they are not able to schedule times with students ahead of time."

The students hired to fill the maintenance positions are not just amateurs hired on the spot. They must go through a process before getting the job.

"The students complete an application and go through an interview process," Jobe said. "This is new for our department. The student maintenance staff will be receiving shirts and nametags indentifying who they are."

Jobe said student maintenance follows a series of protocols before and during entrance just like the other staff members do.

"Before entering the room, the staff knocks repeatedly on the door and if no one answers they will open the door slightly and loudly announce their presence prior to opening the door all the way," Jobe said. "They will wait after announcing to give the resident time to respond. Upon opening the door all the way and stepping in, they will again loudly announce their presence. As for student staff members, they cannot go in a student's room alone."

There is an online work order system being utilized that keeps up with who goes where to fix a problem in a resident's dorm. This system is set into motion when a student files a complaint with their dorm's front desk or resident assistant. After that, the dorm's hall director enters the work order into the online system. This system may be refined in the future to ensure maintenance is doing its job properly.

"Right now we are in the process of changing our online work order system to a new system where students will be able to electronically submit their work order from their room," Jobe said. "They will get a response when the work has been completed and will be able to give feedback on the work that has been done."

For one dorm resident, it wasn't the thought of a student maintenance member going in his room that concerned him.

"I believe maintenance should be more introductive and friendly when they are working in our dorms," junior Patrick Britt said. "Some barely speak to you when you walk into your dorm after class while they are working."

One student who lives off campus even shared concerns when student maintenance members enter rooms while residents are gone.

"It's an invasion of privacy," junior Katelyn Ginn said. "I believe there should be some sort of official supervision required rather than just two student staff members going in at a time. However, I'm sure they hire people they can trust."

Jobe suggests any unease about student maintenance staff should be relayed over to her.

"I welcome any student who has concerns to come by my office and visit with me, so that I can help relieve any anxiety they may have," Jobe said. "We want all of our residents to be as comfortable on campus as possible."