Persistent facility issues continue in Bond House, as mice have been spotted inside the building and residents continue to report a host of challenges.
Second-year College student Uché Chima said that she has seen multiple mice in her apartment. Chima also shared a video of a mouse that scurried under her stove.
“I could not sleep knowing that there's a mouse in a brand new apartment,” Chima said.
Chima also said that worrying about mice in her apartment was interfering with her overall mental state.
“You should be more focused on your work than killing a mouse,” Chima said. “We were not brought here to be exterminators — we're brought here to be students.”
Second-year College student Kat Choi, who lives on the second floor of Bond, has also seen numerous mice in her apartment, including one incident that resulted in the discovery of a mouse’s fecal matter in her silverware drawer.
“I'm just frustrated because they're saying, ‘We're working on it,’ but they haven't told us explicitly what they're doing to fix the problem,” Choi said. “If all they're doing is a case-by-case basis, this seems like a much bigger issue than just a couple mice here and there.”
After Choi saw the first mouse in her apartment Sept. 8, she called Facilities Management and was told that they were out of mouse traps for the day. Choi and her roommates then went to purchase their own traps along with plastic storage bins to protect food that evening because Facilities was not able to come set traps until the next day.
“All [Facilities] said was to try to chase [the mouse] out of my room,” Choi said.
Choi said she sent a work order about the most recent mouse in her apartment to facilities Friday, Sept. 20. She and her friends reported the mouse after they heard it moving behind their stove. Facilities came to set more traps, and during her interview Sunday, Choi said she believed that the mouse was still there.
Choi and her roommates were still dealing with the issue by lining the cracks under their doors with towels, storing food in sealed plastic containers and keeping traps out to minimize their fear of mice.
In an email statement to The Cavalier Daily sent Sept. 24, University Spokesperson Wes Hester said there had been no recent reports of mice in the past week.
“A few residents from the same area of the building reported mice soon after moving in, and those small number of reports were handled by Facilities Management as received,” Hester said.
Second-year College student Aaron Entzminger said he has not seen mice, although his friends have. However, Entzminger has faced numerous issues in Bond, including the water never being hot and having to file numerous work orders.
“The bathroom door on my side [of the apartment] to this day has not been fixed even though we have submitted like three or four work orders,” Entzminger said.
In general, Entzminger felt that the University rushed the construction process.
“What we've seen here for the past few weeks is just like constant construction and having to submit work orders for things that aren't done,” Entzminger said. “We have people coming in and out of our rooms on a weekly basis, just fixing things.”
Hester noted that significant weather issues delayed the Bond project, and as a result, the project team had to make up a lot of time during the summer to ensure students could move in at the start of the school year.
Entzminger stated that he does not plan to live in on-Grounds housing next year. Currently, 36 percent of second-year students live on Grounds.
The cost of living in a single in Bond is $7,850 per academic year. This is the same cost paid by students who live in single bedrooms in Copeley, Faulkner or Language Houses and by students who live in single apartments with private baths in the International Residence College.
“I just don't think this is worth the money,” Enztminger said.
Choi also was unenthused about the idea of living on Grounds for another year.
“I also think I wouldn't, because of this, recommend rising second-years to live in Bond even if they do fix the problem, just based off of how I feel like Housing is dealing with the situation,” Choi said.
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