Maintenance Slow on the Job
Persistent problems with Marist have left students angry
Source: Dan Keator on flikr
Maintenance has been one of Marist students’ biggest concerns for some time now. Many believe that there is no coherent system in place to deal with the college’s maintenance issues in a timely manner.
Earlier this year, the Marist Circle reported on an outbreak of black mold in the Fulton and West Cedar townhouses. Since the first article was posted, a follow-up has also been released. However, the central theme to both was the lack of effort on the part of the maintenance staff.
Scott Dalrymple ’24 lives in Lower West Cedar. “The way maintenance handled the mold was really frustrating,” said Scott Dalrymple. “All my roommates and I got very sick for weeks because of it. The whole time we never heard from them.”
Although maintenance has since followed up on many mold cases, it is not entirely resolved.
This lack of communication and eagerness from maintenance is not new behavior.
Scott Dalrymple’s older brother, Shane Dalrymple ’22, also attends Marist. Last year he lived in Lower Fulton and experienced many issues with maintenance while living there.
“We had a different maintenance issue every week,” said Shane Dalrymple. “Clogged pipes, water damage in our ceiling and our unit never blew cold air throughout the whole year. Most of the furniture in our dorm was broken, but the most frustrating thing was our doorbell.”
Shane Dalrymple went on to explain, “We put in a maintenance request for a new doorbell battery on the first day of the semester. A maintenance worker came by on four separate occasions over the next couple of months. Never with the battery, just to tell us they will be back with the battery. It took four months for it to be fixed, and that was the only issue that was fixed.”
Shane now lives in the off-campus apartment complex Fox Run and says the differences in how they run are day and night.
“At Fox Run, it is totally different,” said Shane Dalrymple. “You put in a maintenance request online, and someone is knocking on your door within the hour. Our apartment completely flooded from the ceiling last month, and they fixed most of it that day.”
Marist students are often left with many questions about why they are forced to be put through this whenever they have a maintenance issue they need fixed.
The Marist Circle reached out to maintenance multiple times and the department did not respond to requests for comment.