By Marilee Devries
As a socially accepted party ground, residence buildings get trashed after weekends of drinking games and floor hopping. But these damages are complicating costs for Ryerson Student Housing.
Student housing manager Chad Nuttall said that damage in the university’s three residences is a common. Broken equipment, labour costs for maintenance and cleaning staff, and extra cleaning products are covered by student housing services.
But if students are caught in the act of vandalizing public property, they pay.
“Vandalism ebbs and flows as the year ebbs and flows,” Nuttall reports. “More damage occurs in early
January when students have less school work.”
But charging students for damage can be difficult, as Student Housing Services doesn’t have its own financial system, so all charges go through RAMSS, which is a complicated process, according to Nuttall.
There is no specific budget for damages, rather a lump sum for each building to cover maintenance.
There isn’t even a tracking record for students who have been charged. Nuttall didn’t have access to how much money has been spent on damages, or how many students have been at fault.
“We don’t track finances like that,” he said.
Chris Allaire, a first-year student living in ILLC, says damage is at its worst after a night of partying.
“There have been several times times where, after a weekend of partying, our lounge is totally destroyed,” Allaire says.
Every year, students are charged upon move-out when staff find the condition of the room and furniture are different than at the beginning of the year.
Kris DiPietro, a residence advisor in Pitman Hall said that in his experience, light fixtures are the biggest victims to destructive residents.
“People aren’t thinking of others when they break stuff in residence. If fees go up from damages, students are the ones who pay,” he said.
Leave a Reply