By Jesse McLean
News Editor
As Ashley MacDonald spent New Years’ Eve in Halifax, she couldn’t help but think of her residence room — and the 12-litre bucket catching water from the leaking ceiling.
By the time she returned to Pitman Hall on Jan. 4, the bucket had overflowed. “That’s when it started to smell,” the first-year sociology student said. MacDonald discovered the leak in the closet of her 14th floor room in late September.
She called the residence maintenance group, who inspected the water damage. In late October, maintenance returned and tore up part of the ceiling to find the leak. They told her that the problem was with the building’s roof, MacDonald said.
“Maintenance has been good about it. But they can only do so much — this is Ryerson’s problem,” she said. Maintenance has visited MacDonald’s room at least four times since September.
Chad Nuttall, Ryerson’s residence life co-ordinator, said that leaks are one of residence’s highest priorities. MacDonald showed Nuttall the damage in December.
However, Nuttall says the leak is under the jurisdiction of Rob Emerson, the supervisor of maintenance and operations for student housing.
“I’m confident that Rob has been talking to her,” Nuttall said. However, MacDonald says the only official she has spoken to is Nuttall.
“I usually just talk to the people at the desk in the housing office. They send up maintenance — and they do the same thing,” MacDonald said.
Emerson was unavailable for comment. Residence offered MacDonald to change rooms in December, but she said her exam schedule prevented her.
“I had five exams in one week. It was brutal,” she said, adding that she liked living with her current suite-mate. “It’d be a pain in the ass to move out, but [living here] might be worse,” she said.
MacDonald pays more than $8,500 to get her room and a meal card for the year — a price that she thinks might be unfair. “I just don’t think I should be paying what I do to live in this,” she said.
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