During room inspections over winter break, mold was discovered in IU's Central neighborhood.
Higher than acceptable levels of mold were found in 19 rooms scattered throughout Teter Quad after buildings Boisen, Elkin and Rabb were inspected, IU spokesperson Chuck Carney said.
The students in the 19 rooms have been given moving assistance and their choice of moving into an on-campus residence or an off-campus apartment.
Students living in Teter were sent an email Dec. 3 instructing them to place their belongings in boxes before they left for break, so the rooms could be inspected and cleaned and air samples could be taken while they were gone. They had to remove items from closets, the walls and storage areas like desks, shelves, windowsills and HVAC units.
“We put boxes out beginning Dec. 3, and we asked people to put the boxed items on the bed or in the center of the room,” Carney said. “Those were covered in plastic during the remediation.”
All students in Teter, as well as those in McNutt and Foster Quads, were given a credit of up to $150 for laundry expenses in residence halls. Since remediation has completed, the credit expired for Foster and McNutt on Dec. 31, and it expires for those in Teter on Jan. 14. They were also able to use Flip Laundry Services for free, which will end soon.
All students had their mold-related health care at the IU health center reimbursed. Carney said those with mold in McNutt and Foster were given the $3,000 credit because their mold issues caused semester disruption.
“We didn’t really move a lot of people out of Teter en masse to do remediation during the semester, so the disruption was a little bit different at Teter,” Carney said. “It was a much smaller issue in that residence hall.”
The inspections were performed over winter break to minimize disruption and interference during end-of-semester work and final exams, according to the Dec. 3 email sent to students.
Alex Boden, a freshman living in Teter Rabb, said she didn’t have to move out, but she did have to pack and unpack.
“Packing everything up wasn’t the hard part,” Boden said. “It was when I got back on Saturday and I came into the room. Everything was moved around so I had to push my furniture back to the order it was in for first semester.”
Boden said she was lucky because the act of packing didn’t disrupt her finals. Her finals were finished Wednesday, so she was able to pack her room Thursday and Friday before she left for break.
“I was lucky I had that,” Boden said. “But I know there were some people who had finals on Friday and they were probably flipping out about having to both pack and go take their finals.”
Arika Akin, a freshman who lived in Teter Boisen, said she was forced to move out, though she never saw the mold in her room. Akin said at first she got an email about replacing the carpet, and then was told to move out completely.
Akin said she spent a weekend unsure of where she was going to live when she got back from break. She said she was told on a Friday that she had to move and wasn’t contacted again until the following Wednesday.
IU moved her to Union Street apartments, and Akin had to come back to campus three days before she had planned so she could move in.
“I was pretty upset that I wasn’t able to spend more time with my family over break,” Akin said. “It was just a really weird experience because now I’m in Union Street, and it’s set up so differently.”
Akin said she was excited to spend her freshman year experiencing life in her residence hall, and she spent a majority of her days during fall semester in the lounge, hallways or her friends' rooms. Now, she only has her room and a shared kitchen and bathroom area.
“I think it’ll work out fine. I knew one of my new roommates beforehand, and I’ve met one of the other ones and she seems really nice,” Akin said. “It’s just not the same.”
