Hot Water Mayhem Sends FAMU Students to Hotels
Hot Water Mayhem Sends FAMU Students to Hotels
Ebony Ivey
The month of April proved to be a busy month for FAMU Housing & newly appointed director, Dr. Jennifer Wilder. Wilder had to make several imperative decisions regarding a hot water outage in Palmetto Phase III, which included the relocation of students from the on-campus apartments to nearby hotels.
When Phase III’s hot water heater broke, papers were posted around the facility were to make students aware of the situation. The papers notified residents that the water would be back on at 6 p.m. and for those who would miss a class because they could not shower, class excuses would be provided.
The water which did indeed come back on, was only available cold. Phase III’s housing staff had to then notify residents that they would be without hot water for what was estimated to be one week.
Wilder, who was made aware of the issue the following afternoon, journeyed to campus on a Saturday to come up with a week-long solution.
“I got the call about 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, we were in the office by 3:15, 3:30 strategizing,” said Wilder. “The first thing we did was figure out where do we have vacancies on campus that we could move people to.”
After all of the vacancies on campus were exhausted, Wilder began a search for hotels in the area to house the remaining number of students.
Unfortunately for the now antsy residents, Springtime Tallahassee, a popular weekend long festival, had Tallahassee hotels booked to capacity Saturday night.
With bad news being a recurring theme, the goal was then to provide students with a place to shower until the next day.
On Saturday evening and Sunday morning, outside of its’ normal operating hours, the campus’ recreation center was available for the residents who needed to take a hot shower. While some residents chose to use the facility to shower, others declined and were more concerned about their upcoming arrangements.
Again, due to the weekend’s festivities, and an increase in the hotel population, hotel keys were not provided to residents until almost 5 p.m. Sunday.
“Once we got the keys, we had to double check and make sure we had what they said we had and we did try to ask the Phase 3 staff to check and see who had transportation. For the students who didn’t, all of the hotels were on a bus line,” said Wilder.
Ne’Quanshanae Brock, a second year business student and Phase III resident, said that her biggest concern with staying in a hotel was transportation.
“At first they were going to try to get a shuttle for us, but no shuttle ever came,” said Brock. “My friend went to the hotel with me, so I decided that she could be my ride back and forth to campus. That was the only reason I chose to go since I don’t have a car.”
After seven days in the Hilton hotel, Brock was able to move back into her apartment. “Housing sent out a letter saying that due to the issues they would reimburse us $200 on rent for the spring semester,” she said.
Fortunately for Wilder, who has been in her position as Housing Director at FAMU for less than a month, the hot water crisis was incomparable to a situation she dealt with as the Assistant Housing Director at Southern Methodist University.
Elevator surfing left one student dead and his roommate in critical condition, after one slipped and fell off of the elevator shaft landing on his neck and the other shattered his elbow in 26 places.
Wilder explained that because the incident happened in the middle of the night, and made such a loud thud, the other housing students turned nocturnal, staying up all night and sleeping during the day.
“Counselors were on campus for a week, and the Residence Director left after that year, she said. “I’ve dealt with suicides and student deaths, but that experience was probably the worst one.”
Palmetto Phase III, one of three on-campus apartment facilities, features single bedrooms and shared bathrooms for students who wish to enjoy the perks of an apartment, while being close to the heart of campus.
Dr. Jennifer Wilder, who has had many years of experience with college housing communities, admitted that the condition of the FAMU’s residence halls was a surprise to her.
“The biggest challenge here is the state of the facilities. There are a lot of challenges and deficiencies with our facilities,” she said.
Built in 1996, the 21-year-old structure houses approximately over 300 students and has not had any renovations done to it since it was constructed.
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