Devereux Hall
Photo Courtesy: SBU Archives
BY: BROOKE JOHNPIER, STAFF WRITER
“On Saturday evening, I walked into the bathroom prepared to take a shower,” said Emma Gavazzi, a sophomore English major. “But as I approached the shower stalls, I was met first by a vicious odor and then a sight that I could only describe as utterly heinous, and odious. It was like being in a horror film and walking into the putridity of a sewer.”
Devereux Hall residents, Gavazzi and Chloe Wilson, a sophomore public health major, claim their bathrooms are unusable due to lack of cleanliness.
On Feb. 3, Gavazzi experienced this issue first-hand. She then informed Wilson of the situation.
“She told me to come with her to the bathroom and when we got there, I saw a scene I will never forget,” said Wilson. “From the looks and smell it was fecal matter, urine and vomit in and outside of the shower stall. We knew at that point we couldn’t use the showers and needed to contact people.”
Residents on the first floor of Devereux Hall are unsatisfied with the cleanliness of the bathrooms. Not only is this situation inconvenient, but students view it as a health concern. Students feel that late night facilities are lacking.
“[Safety and Security] informed us that they were already aware of the situation, but may not be able to have the bathroom cleaned until Monday,” said Gavazzi. “My main concern was the idea of living across the hall from a biohazard for over 24 hours; I thought that a legitimate health and human safety concern might be treated as more of a priority.”
Wilson had a different experience when she called the security office.
“I called my good friend who is a RA on second Dev and asked him what I should do. He told me to call safety and security,” said Wilson. “I called safety and security and explained the scene; they informed me that someone else had called about it but there was nothing that could be done until [late] Saturday.”
Gary Segrue, director of campus security, said the call received from Wilson and Gavazzi was reported to the night housekeeper at 10:09 p.m. that night.
According to Gavazzi and Wilson, the bathroom was cleaned Saturday night, but wasn’t thoroughly cleaned until Monday.
“On Sunday, the majority of the physical waste appeared to have been cleared away,” said Gavazzi. “However, the odor remained, which led me to believe that nothing had yet been disinfected and that the showers were not yet safe to use.”
Jared Smith, director of facilities operations, said that facilities is notified when Safety and Security is called for “emergency” situations on the weekends.
“In regards to protocol for emergency cleaning – the way it works is that if there is an “emergency” situation after hours security is notified and they will let facilities know,” said Smith. “If something is deemed an emergency, facilities will respond regardless of what time or day it is.”
Smith argues that security and facilities work well together when dealing with weekend calls.
“Security has always been a good partner letting facilities know of any issues,” said Smith. The night shift housekeepers actually carry a security radio around with them so they can respond quickly to calls.”
“As far as I know there was not any drainage issue,” said Smith. I have talked to multiple people in Facilities and Security and I still don’t understand what “issue” you are referring to?
Rylie Heffernan, a sophomore psychology major, also had this concern. This led Heffernan to find other locations to shower.
“We could not shower for about two days,” said Heffernan. “This affected me as I needed to shower, but I just went off campus to do so.”
Wilson had this same experience.
“Thankfully my friend on the fourth floor let us in to use the showers on Saturday and Sunday, but it was an inconvenience,” said Wilson.
Jared Smith, director of facilities operations, said that facilities are looking into possible problems in Dev.
“The first thing [we do] is determine if there are any ongoing issues in the building, or is this an isolated problem that is not really indicative of a larger issue,” said Smith. “If there is a problem, we work to address [it] immediately.”
According to Smith, some staffing and scheduling changes are being implemented on the first floor of Dev.
“I feel confident the facilities department is taking this seriously,” said Smith. “[We] will take care of any issues.”
Wilson feels that the Safety and Security could have responded better.
“I understand that it was late on Saturday night when I called, so facilities didn’t have people to clean right then and there,” said Wilson. “As a public health major, it concerned me that the bacteria had been circulating in the air.”
Gavazzi was thankful that the bathroom got cleaned.
“At the same time, I feel absolutely awful for the custodial staff who were forced to handle a situation that was not only repulsive but truly unsafe,” said Gavazzi.
Smith says the best tool to alert facilities of any problem is the FSR form, or Facilities Service Request form which is found on MySbu. This form allows students to alert facilities about problems they are having.
“The best way to identify any problems with the housekeeping and cleanliness of a building is for all residents to utilize the campus FSR system,” said Smith. “We encourage students to file FSR’s whenever they would like something addressed.”
johnpibl23@bonaventure.edu
