Since the University of North Georgia’s Dahlonega campus is the only campus with residential students, maintenance problems are an issue for students. Like a tenant and landlord relationship, the campus deals with any maintenance issues a resident might run into.
Also like a tenant and landlord relationship, there will be some disagreements when issues are present.
Alyssa Elswick, a freshman East Asian studies major, who lives in the North Georgia Suites says, “There’s a big dryer issue on my hall, there’s one having to be fixed almost every week.” She thinks a solution to this would be to add more and get newer dryers. She has encountered a few more with her shower head spraying water outside of the shower, and the sinks in her dorm not working.
Elswick also said, “Every time I’ve called maintenance, they’ve always been nice so I don’t really know why everything keeps breaking or how they can help more.”
Hilary Allen, a freshman history major, who also lives in the North Georgia Suites said that, “The washers and dryers are always broken and even when they’re ‘fixed’ they don’t really work.”
Like Elswick, she also regularly calls maintenance to get the sinks in her dorm fixed.
Kenzie Anderson, a freshman communications major, lives in Donovan Hall. Anderson said most of the showers on her hall did not have hot water besides the handicap accessible shower and one other shower. She has completely avoided using the broken showers, so she is unsure if they have been fixed or if anyone has contacted maintenance.
Kaylee Melton, a sophomore East Asian studies major, has issues with the elevators on campus.
“They’re f**king terrifying. The one in Roger’s is a dark cave.”
Mackenzie Morgan, a sophomore psychology major shared that the elevator in the Walker Drive parking deck stopped partially in between floors. She said, “The doors fully opened but we weren’t actually at the floor, we had to step up to get out.”
The Georgia Fire Commissioner office oversees that the elevators are certified to run. Most, if not all, of the elevators on campus have expired and need a new inspection. The Fire Commissioner’s assistant explained that the difficulty with getting the elevators renewed is the elevator to inspector ratio.
He said, “There are 34,000 elevators in Georgia, and we have nine inspectors.” He explained that it shouldn’t really put students at too much risk because only basic checks are preformed yearly. He did not know if the contractor for the elevators on campus had reached out to get the elevators renewed.
He also explained that the Fire Commissioners office inherited an outdated system for keeping track of which elevators need renewing. They are currently working to move to a digital system.
Ken Crowe, the assistant vice president of the facilities department, explained how the facilities team is working to fix the hot water situation in Donovan Hall. He says they have been working on the problem and will likely have it fully completed over the 2022 spring break.
Stephanie Nakamura, executive director of auxiliary services, said her department is working on fixing the issues with the washers and dryers in residence halls. She explained that “an order for 12 Washers and 12 Dryers was placed in the Fall with an estimated delivery date of March. These units will be installed in Patriot.” Annually after the installation of the new washers and dryers in Patriot Hall each residence building will receive new machines.
Nakamura also explained that there are issues with students over loading and unbalancing the washers when running them. This does not allow the washer to spin properly. She said her department is going to work on putting out an educational video on how to best use the washers and dryers to prevent damage and optimize their washing capabilities. There is also a dedicated employee who’s entire job is to go around the residence halls and make sure the machines are working correctly.
If a student runs into an issue with the washers or dryers, they need to submit a maintenance request with the floor it’s located on and the number of the broken machine.
