Students living in VSU residence halls have reported mold growing at an alarming rate in their rooms.

Mold has been seen in Hopper, Georgia, and Centennial. Students have brought awareness to this by posting anonymous pictures of their dorms to the social media platform YikYak. With the increased attention, many other students have said they have seen mold in their own dorms.

Students are able to discuss their dorm concerns with Housing and can make maintenance requests if they notice any problems. Mold has been seen in showers, walls, and closets of residence buildings. One student has even shown pictures of mushrooms growing out of the wall in Hopper Hall.

Taylor Craig, a senior and secondary education major, posted a picture of her closet in her Centennial dorm to YikYak in order to bring light to her unfit living conditions.

“I made the work order first and then I posted pictures on YikYak, and later Snapchat, because I know that mold has been a prevalent issue, not just in my room but in lots of other rooms,” said Craig.

Craig wanted the situation to be resolved as soon as possible since she has asthma and wants to feel comfortable in her own apartment. She went to housing first, but they did not act with urgency. She then put in a maintenance order, but it wasn’t until it was flagged as an emergency that it was fixed.

Maintenance acted quickly after receiving an emergency maintenance request. They inspected her closet and then gave her a twenty-minute period to remove all of her belongings from the closet. They then sprayed it with a cleaning solution, and she has not seen signs of molding since.

Environmental safety workers explained that a potential cause of the mold was the hurricane. They told Craig that there may have been roof damage, or the rain came into the building sideways.

“It’s so concerning that we are paying all this money to live in a building where the rain can blow sideways into the building,” said Craig.

One other major concern mainly lies with how housing handled the situation. According to Craig, there had been falsified information and missing photos on her dorm inspection, claiming that things were “good” or “average” when they were not.

“Even when I moved into the building, there were holes in the wall and water damage in the ceiling, it wasn’t in great condition in the first place,” said Craig.

Craig is not the only VSU student who has dealt with mold growing in their residential dorms. Craig explained that she had heard her sorority sisters have similar issues.

“One of my sorority sisters had mold in her floor and she was having an allergic reaction to it, and they wouldn’t do anything,” said Craig.

Craig’s main concern lies with how VSU housing handled the situation; she thought that they should have been more prepared and handled the problem with urgency instead of her having to make continuous complaints in order for them to solve the issue.

VSU’s housing department responded to the backlash, urging students to look into housing procedures.

“We encourage all our residents to submit work orders at the first sign of any issues in their dorms,” said Ricky Clark, VSU Director of Housing and Residence Life.

This is an ongoing story, and updates will go out as it progresses.

Written by Jenna Arnold, News Editor. Photo courtesy of Taylor Craig.