By Ken Irving, Senior Reporter
“I wouldn’t wish living in this place to anyone,” said Xavier Streeter, a junior student at Northwestern.
What is the place that Streeter is referring to? That would be Ament dorms. Ament hall is a three-story brick building that towers in the middle of campus. Inside those brick walls are tiled floors filled with just over 100 students who have expressed frustrations about their current living situations.
“It’s a bad health hazard,” said Brandon Dixon Jr., a freshman student at NWOSU. “We have mold coming out of the ceiling. The janitorial system is terrible. The bathroom is always in terrible condition. You can smell the bathroom, walking through the hallways. Then you have the showers like why do we not have hot water. The wifi goes out, the power goes out like it doesn’t make any sense.”
Dixon’s frustrations stem from a building that has not been remodeled in years. According to Vice President for Student Services Caleb Mosburg, Ament is one of the last dorms and buildings on campus that need to get remodeled.
It has been a while since Ament was last redone and it is in much need of repairs.
Part of the mold problem that is in Ament comes from moisture from the air condition units. The moisture gets stuck to the tile and creates mold. Northwestern has also experienced an unusual amount of rainfall this summer season and that has played a major role in the build up of mold.
“There’s mold and gnats in the bathroom and it’s seriously a health hazard,” said Leonitis Fussarelli a graduate at NWOSU.
Mosburg understands that the students have health concerns about the mold, however he reassures them that the health issues will be addressed. He advises students to get cleaning wipes and to wipe the ceiling and it should be okay. If the situation continues, than the students should put in a maintenance complaint, and they will come in and fix it.
Although Mosburg says students should file a maintenance complaint, many students do not have any faith that they will come fix the issues.
“I feel like the maintenance has not made it a priority to get things done,” said Kodie Sanders, a freshman at NWOSU. “I have been asking to get my door fixed for months and I haven’t received a response or had anything come happen yet.”
“I feel like we are just second-class citizens,” said Sean Wright, a freshman at NWOSU. “It’s like they don’t care about us.”
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Recruitment Director of Housing, Matt Adair, has made it a priority to push student maintenance issues. He has been on the record of working tirelessly to get maintenance to fix the students’ problems that they have. The problem is that maintenance gets flooded with problems and have to filter out what problems need more attention than others.
“Sometimes students who may have broken blinds will have to wait longer to get that fixed because we may have students who have electrical problems,” Adair said.
Mosburg was obviously irate whenever he heard that an Ament student said he felt like he was treated as a second-class citizen. Immediately after the interview, Mosburg made multiple calls to find out what was taking maintenance so long to fix issues in the dorms.
Many of the students complained about the power going out throughout the dorms. One night the entire dorm was in the dark and out of power. Students were furious about this.
Mosburg was awake at three in the morning making calls and making sure the students were able to get power. The power issues stem from old electric wires that just simply need to be repaired.
In addition to electric lines needing repair, the water tanks are in dire need of repair. Multiple students complained about either not having any water or not having hot water to take a shower with.
“The hot water is on and off,” said Jayden Cervantes, a sophomore at NWOSU. “We have plumbing problems, the water is cold, the water doesn’t turn on, the toilet doesn’t flush correctly sometimes. We have problems with the power going out. The water has been going in and out every other week. We can’t flush the toilets sometimes. I would say the water we have to brush our teeth and face with is unacceptable. It’s murky.”
“The ceilings have mold on them,” said Myles Mays, a junior at NWOSU. “We never know if we’re getting hot water are not. Theirs bugs coming in and out of the building everywhere.”
The students who live in Ament are fed up with the hot water going out.
Zaid Walker, a freshman student at NWOSU said, “I can’t come home from a long day of practice and long meetings to cold or no water. I can’t do my homework if the power is out.”
This is understandable. Most of the residents in Ament are student athletes. For most of the day they are outside, sweating and working their bodies to the brink of exhaustion and some nights they have to come home to either no water or no hot water.
It’s not fair to them that they have to be a student athlete that represents this school, but they have to live in unjust conditions.
The water not being out dates to the unequipped water tanks in Ament Hall. The water going in and out dates to the City of Alva and thier construction project on Highway 281 just alongside the school. Many residents in Alva are dealing with the water going out, so they should be able to feel empathy for the students living in Ament. In addition to students coming home to no water, they also have to come home to a dirty and filthy environment. There are over 100 boys living in Ament hall. It is thier responsibility to clean up after themselves, but it would be foolish to believe that 100 young men will keep thier dorm nice and tidy.
The hallways in Ament are littered with debris. The hallways smell like urine and sweat. There is mold on the ceilings and some tiles are caved in. There is urine spewing from the bathroom. There is poop sitting in toilets clogged with toilet paper. The stench of Ament Hall is unfathomable. This fully falls back on the janitor who is responsible for cleaning Ament. If that person cannot correctly do the job right, then that person needs to speak up and ask for help.
It is unacceptable that students have to bathe and use the restroom in the same filth that was there the day before. Some students even went on the record to say that they didn’t ever see the janitor.
Mosburg was infuriated once he heard about this. He immediately took note of this and has had talks and meetings with that janitor behind the scenes. He knows that this is unacceptable. Students should not be living in those conditions whatsoever.
“I feel like the wifi needs to be better,” said Justis Jones, a junior student at NWOSU. “It’s slow and cuts out on me sometimes. The water is on and off and I don’t like how I’m paying all this money for the dorms and the utilities aren’t up to par.”
Jones isn’t the only student who is upset about the issues their having in Ament. Many students were on the record saying they felt like they shouldn’t be paying that much money for dorms that won’t be upkept. They felt like no one ever comes to check on Ament so why should they spend their money in staying there.
Xavier Streeter said, “I wouldn’t wish living in this place to anyone.”
Students are fed up with what they are getting from Ament Hall and they aren’t being shy to speak about it. They are tired with maintenace not coming to fix their problems, they are tired of the janitor being virtually non-existent and not keeping the dorm clean, they are tired of not having hot water or any hot water to take showers in, they are tired of not having Wi-Fi and they are tired of being treated like second class citizens. One student even said they felt like this was a third world country.
The faculty at Northwestern has heard the students, in fact they are thankful and encourage them to speak up more about the issues. Adair said that he is thankful for the students to speak up and come to them about their issues. Mosburg has made it a priority to get things right in Ament Hall. He has made numerous calls to get certain things fixed for the students. Reparations will be made to Ament Hall soon.
According to Mosburg, sometime next year the dorm will be undergoing a much needed renovation.
In a year, Ament Hall might look brand new, but what about the students who live their now?
They can’t wait a year to be living in a pigsty. Mosburg agrees that they should not be living in those conditions and has had meetings with the janitor and maintenance to make Ament the home the students deserve.
No student should be living like this. Students already have to worry about school, sports, relationships, food to eat, money and family issues. It’s important that they can feel safe to come home to an environment that welcomes them.
Mosburg and Adair have done their part in making the living situation for the students better, but what about the people who everyone is relying on. Will the janitor actually do his job? Will maintenance actually come fix issues in the dorm? Or will this be another situation where the school fixes something temporarily and then after a while things revert back to how they used to be.
The students in Ament Hall are human beings.
Yes, boys might get a little messy but at the end of the day, they deserve the same respect and common decency that any human being on this planet receives.