The Wolf Village staff began conducting Health and Safety inspections of the Wolf Village Apartments on Wednesday to check that they are tidy and properly cared for.
“We want to ensure that the apartments in our village provide a conducive learning environment for the students who live there,” Chester Miller, Assistant Director of Wolf Village Apartments, said. “Also these inspection look for maintenance-related issues so we can fix them early on.”
According to Miller, Wolf Village conducts one health and safety inspection in the fall and one in the spring. The inspections are conducted by the Resident Advisors in Wolf Village.
“The RAs will be checking to make sure that each resident’s apartment meets the Wolf Village Health and Safety Standard,” Miller said. “We don’t offer housekeeping to our residents so it’s up to them to keep their apartments tidy.”
According to the Health and Safety Checklist sent to all Wolf Village residents, the Resident Advisors will not be conducting a thorough inspection of each apartment, just a visual one to spot obvious hazards such as excessive trash and clutter and possible fire hazards such as candles or strung together extension cords.
They will also be looking for damages and other maintenance-related problems. “It’s a challenge for us to prepare an apartment for the next resident,” Miller said. “So inspecting the apartments each semester aids facilities in fixing issues. If we left the apartments alone and didn’t inspect them, we probably would have more work at the end of the terms.”
Each apartment is given a rating, which range from “poor” to “stellar,” according to Miller.
Those apartments that receive ratings of “poor” or “fair” have 24 hours to correct their violations before a follow-up inspection is conducted. If the concerns still haven’t been corrected, the resident will face a $25 Health and Safety Inspection Failure fee.
While the inspections are to ensure the safety of the students in Wolf Village, some residents don’t believe they are necessary.
“I think that the inspections are ridiculous. After all, it is an apartment, and we don’t need other people to tell us whether or not our rooms are clean enough or not,” Lindsey Luu, a junior in psychology, said. “Also if you’re a messy person, you’re apartments going to be a mess. Cleaning up just for the inspection isn’t going to help.”
According to Miller, safety inspections like this one occur across campus and are a way of ensuring that the University’s housing policies are followed.
Lindsey Mihalov, a sophomore in animal science and a RA in Sullivan Hall, said the RAs in the campus residence halls visually inspect rooms when the University closes for breaks to insure that there are no safety hazards.
“The only time we inspect the rooms other than during breaks is if we receive a complaint or see trash or other items in the suite halls,” Mihalov said. “And once a semester, the fire marshal comes and inspects each dorm room for fire hazards.”
In addition to the Health and Safety Inspection, Wolf Village will be conducting deep cleaning of the apartments starting Nov. 1. During this deep cleaning, staff will shampoo the carpets and clean the furniture, as well as the bathrooms and kitchens.
