“I felt healthier sleeping at an ISU frat house during Labour Day weekend than I do living in Gulick,” said an anonymous resident.
While Illinois Wesleyan University continues to build and renovate several parts of campus, other parts sit neglected, forcing students to live in conditions that put their health in jeopardy.
After I moved into Gulick and unpacked my things, I began to get ready for the opening ceremonies of IMPACT, a pre-orientation program.
I laid my outfit out on my bed and did my makeup. To my surprise, when I went back to put my outfit on, it was completely soaked.
That’s when I looked up to realize my ceiling had been actively leaking, soaking not just the outfit I had picked out, but also an additional bag of brand new clothes.
I did not realize the gravity of my situation until the next day when my neighbors and I were attempting to figure out how to put in a work order in hopes of getting the leakage fixed.
We were overheard by upperclassmen who told us that “the building sweats from the humidity and there is nothing that can be done to fix it.”
In addition to the dripping water, there was another peculiarity I noticed while looking up: mold in the lights.
After several reports from students before the start of Fall semester, staff arrived to clean out the mold from the lights before the rest of the first years moved in for Fall orientation, though the mildew caused by the leakage remained and mold inhabited multiple air-conditioning units, which was initially unnoticed by students and not immediately reported.
Although staff originally acted quickly to clean out the mold when it was reported at the start of the term, students now have to put in multiple work orders to get mold cleaned out of their dorms.
According to the CDC, exposure to mold can lead to symptoms including stuffy noses, wheezing and red or itchy eyes and or skin. Some severe reactions include fever and shortness of breath.
While Gulick is arguably one of the most neglected buildings on campus, it is not the only one. Mold has been reported in the Gates Apartments, Magill and Dolan.
“While I was living in Dolan Hall from August to November, I was sick for about 2 months with constant cold and flu-like symptoms, including a sore throat, a stuffy nose and postnasal drip.” said junior Morgan Cherry.
Cherry said because of the mold, she also got pink eye twice while living in Dolan, which caused her to miss multiple classes and sent her to the emergency room because her tonsils had “swelled up so badly it hurt to breath.”
It took an ER visit for ORL to move Cherry out of her room and into a new hall, but the school didn’t take any action. “I expressed these concerns to the school, and I was met with denial of the mold in my room, even with proof of my sickness from the emergency room and pictures of mold from my room.” said Cherry.
The possibility of health concerns and unappealing spaces cost students in Gulick a sense of community.
“No one, myself included, goes to the common room because of the smell,” said Gulick resident Aurora Gable.
Compared to the modern and clean common rooms in Ferguson and Munsell, the Gulick common room is desolate and littered with strangely stained and broken furniture.
Spending time in a dorm room with several air freshers, which is needed to ward off the smell, is preferable to spending time in a vile smelling common room even if that means sacrificing community.
