Maintenance

Property damage and loss in the residence halls are of genuine concern to residents and Residence Life. Costs of damages and losses affect the room rents for every student living on campus. Damages and losses often compromise the building's safety, security and comfort.

To live on campus, students sign a contract agreeing to pay a portion of the cost to repair or replace university property that is damaged or stolen if the person responsible is not identified. We have worked hard to produce a damage policy that reduces these costs to students. The policy is described below, along with suggestions for what each student can do to help reduce damage costs.

1. A resident or staff member reports joint area property damage or loss to the Area Director (AD).
2. The AD determines the repair or replacement cost in consultation with the facility's maintenance staff.
3. If known, the person(s) responsible for the damage receives a bill. (Some situations also result in student conduct referral.)
4. If the person(s) responsible is unknown, your elected Hall Council members will investigate the situation.
5. If the person(s) responsible is still unknown, your Hall Council decides which floor, unit, or building will cover this bill and then collects the money from the residents of that floor, unit, or building.
6. Any unrecovered damage or loss charges that are unresolved at the end of the semester are collected by Hall Council representatives.
7. Appeals for charges are directed back to the Hall Council during the academic year. During the summer, appeals are heard by the appropriate AD.
8. Costs for common area damages occurring after the final Hall Council meeting of the semester are assigned by the AD and billed directly over the summer by Residence Life.

Does the Damage Policy work?

Over time, we have seen damages decrease because of this policy. Here are several reasons why we believe it works:

1. Damage and loss in the residence halls have been significantly reduced.
2. Many residents have become more active in reducing damage and loss.
3. Several buildings on campus have identified the person(s) responsible for all damage and loss. Hence, no charges had to be recovered from residents of the hall or the unassigned damage account.
4. More money is available for hall improvements and programs.

1. Keep a watchful eye and ear. If you see someone walking away with an end table or destroying a chair in your lounge, confront them. Contact a staff member or Campus Police if necessary.
2. Don't allow just anyone access to your building. Ask people who they are here to see, and make sure that is where they go. Question strangers roaming the halls. Report suspicious activity.
3. Don't prop doors. Unprop them as you find them propped. Some damage is caused by nonresidents.
4. If you witness damage on your floor, encourage the person(s) responsible to report that to an RA, or do so yourself if they won't. Peer pressure can help reduce damages because you will be if the responsible person(s) is not made to pay.
5. Turn in work order requests for items that look unsteady.
6. Don't remove screens from windows.

Stay Involved

With the assistance of the Residence Life staff, Hall Council, RHA and other residents, you can work to reduce costs for property damage and loss.

You can get involved in Hall Council or attend meetings if you are not a member. With the other residents in your building, send a clear message that stealing or damaging common area property is not okay.

Grounded relocatable power taps or "surge protector strips" with heavy-duty cords will be the only allowable receptacle extensions from wall outlets.

Each power tap will be connected directly to a wall receptacle and shall not be plugged into one another. Remember that the package must identify the item as a "surge protector" — look for the word RESET on the switch; some products have an on/off switch that offers no safety protection or circuit breaker.

Where Can I Buy a Surge Protector?

The stores listed below carry approved surge protectors in various lengths:

• ACE Hardware
• W&M Bookstore
• Lowe's
• Home Depot
• Staples
• Target
• Wal-Mart

An 'extension cord' is typically a brown, white or green plastic cord with a plug on one end and outlets on the other. Such cords do not have a fuse or circuit breaker to prevent overheating in the event of a short circuit. Using a multiplug adapter (a fitting plugged into a wall outlet expanding the number of outlets) is also prohibited. Residents may only use relocatable power taps or surge protector strips (basically what is used to plug a computer into).

Please be aware that improper use of an extension cord or multiplug adapter is considered a violation of the Housing Contract and Fire Safety Regulations and, as such, may result in W&M judicial action for the residents involved.

Williamsburg, Virginia: where you can comfortably wear shorts one day in January and then wear a sweater the next.

With the exception of the fraternities, Lemon, Hardy, Chandler, Landrum, Ludwell Apartments, and Tribe Square, our buildings are simply not designed to switch back and forth between heat and AC. 

• A residential house or apartment system is small and usually consists of a heat pump, which can be switched quickly between the two. But a heat pump is inefficient for large buildings, so our buildings rely on either chilled or heated water to control the temperature in our buildings.
  • The catch is that the system can only do one at a time because there is only one set of pipes (one pipe carries in the water, and the other carries it out). To switch from heat to AC or vice versa, we have to shut down the system, drain the water, and then start it back up again; this can take up to 48 hours, and often, by that time, the temperature has already changed back. 
  • This is why we identify switchover dates in October and April when we can switch over the entire campus at once; that keeps the systems running as smoothly as possible and does not put an undue strain on our older building systems. We have some control over the general temperature settings and cut the heat back or AC to very low levels as the temperatures dictate.
• Residence Life and Facilities Management monitor three websites (National Weather Service, Weather Channel and Weather Underground) to understand what is coming with the weather.
  • Because of the lag time required to switch back and forth due to staffing and equipment requirements, we must balance anticipation and reaction to set the building systems between heat and air-conditioning.
  • A good analogy would be steering a car with a 10-second delay between moving the steering wheel and the tires turning. With that information, we anticipate building settings based on our best forecast.

Sweating in your room on a hot August day does make you wonder how any building could be designed and built without AC. Until the mid-70s, almost all of the residence halls on campus were not air-conditioned, nor was it considered a 'must have.'

While the university has made strides in retrofitting older buildings with air conditioning, such as Bryan Complex, Old Dominion, Barrett, Chandler and DuPont, several factors influence our ability to install AC retroactively:

• Power: Older buildings often need an electrical upgrade to accommodate the AC equipment; buildings were not designed with as many outlets or the capacity to carry the electrical load that comes with modern electronics. All of our buildings meet current safety codes, but there isn't the capacity for adding much else to the building.
• Space: Another critical factor is where to put the system – where do you put the fan coil unit? Do you use ducting, and if so, is there room to run the ductwork in the ceiling? How do you pipe the chilled water into each room? The most important question is where do you put the main equipment and fresh air intakes? Since the windows are closed when you air condition a building, you have to have a way to draw in the outside air, and more importantly, how do you temper the outside air to keep the humidity levels down?
• Building Envelope: You can't air condition a building without considering the building envelope: installing a state-of-the-art system in a building that still has 1950s-era single-pane windows is a waste of energy. An additional consideration is a moisture barrier; brick and cinder block construction will act like a sponge and soak up moisture from hot outside air as you cool a building. When humid air hits a cold surface, such as a chilled water pipe, you get condensation, which can lead to water damage and possible mold.

As a result of the university's experience with several air conditioning retrofits, there are written construction standards that dictate how we go about future installations. Instead of doing piecemeal upgrades, upgrading a building's cooling simultaneously as a comprehensive renovation, as we did with Chandler and Landrum, is much more efficient.

During the renovations, we stripped down the interior to the point where moisture barrier on the exterior walls, ducting, piping, and electrical power could all be installed in the most efficient way possible. Not only does this make maintenance more manageable, the result is more energy-efficient.

Residence Life is committed to sustainability in our halls, providing those within our campus community opportunities to recycle and reuse. Here is how you can be a part of this effort:

What We Recycle

• Paper
• Glass
• Plastic Codes #1 & #2 (no caps please)
• Cardboard (but no greasy pizza boxes, please)
• Aluminum and metal cans
• For other items, such as CFLs, contact the Environmental Health & Safety office.

Each room or apartment has a blue recycling bin for residents to use. You can empty your recycling into our blue recycling dumpsters outside. Since we do co-mingle recycling, it couldn't be any easier!

We also have blue collection bins in kitchens and other designated areas, so you can always recycle. Our recycling staff makes scheduled rounds of campus Monday through Friday to collect these items. Keep these areas clean, rinse containers and do not place trash in the recycling bins!

Thanks to generous funding from the Student Assembly, numerous new public compost locations are now around campus.

• Check out the composting interactive map provided by W&M Dining Sustainability.
• For more information on what can be composted and where to find bins, visit the Composting on Campus webpage.

Aside from properly disposing of items, we can always use good ideas! If you have any suggestions or questions, please email Chris Durden, Director of Housing Operations, at [[mcdurd]] or speak to your Community Council and hall representatives.

It’s not the heat: the humidity causes mold and mildew to develop in the residence halls. The combination of Williamsburg’s high relative humidity and thermostats set below 70° cause the moisture to condense inside the residence halls and form mold and mildew. To help prevent the growth of mold and mildew on your hall, you must do the following if you live in an air-conditioned building:

• If you have a thermostat, set it to 70° or higher.
• Always keep your window closed.
• Always keep exterior doors closed.

If you see mold or mildew in the building, submit a Service Request. If the mold or mildew recurs, please indicate such in the service request to alert Facilities Management and Environment, Health and Safety to investigate and test as necessary.

Preventing Growth

Please see these additional tips to help prevent mold and mildew growth from happening:

• Do not leave wet clothes, towels, shoes, etc. lying around.
• Avoid condensation and allow airflow to keep things dry.
• Run the bathroom fan after showering.
• If you find mildew in your room, do not panic!
  • Put the proper protective gear on and clean it with simple dish detergent and water. 
  • For persistent or public area mildew problems and concerns, submit a Service Request or call 757-221-2270.

Welcome to the allergen capital of Virginia! Between the rivers, swamps, heat and humidity, this is a perfect place for all kinds of stuff to make you sneeze.

Unfortunately, not every student may bring their window unit because the power drain on our building's electrical systems would be too much. Students with a diagnosed disability who need air conditioning as an accommodation should register with Student Accessibility Services. 

If approved, and depending on individual need, a student will either be placed in a chilled-air system residence hall, or the university will provide and install a window unit at no cost to the student. Any student can bring an air purifier for their room if needed.

Also, do not forget about the Health Center; they can also help with seasonal sniffles!

The flu and viruses can spread more readily when people live nearby, such as in the halls. However, there are precautions that you can take to minimize your exposure to both airborne and surface contaminants.

• Wash hands frequently and thoroughly; long duration is the key to removing the surface contaminants on the hands. Anti-bacterial soaps are limited; vigorous hand washing with plain soap will be more effective.
•  Avoid touching your eyes, mouth or nose.
• Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
• Do not share items, especially utensils, plates and cups. Splitting a pizza or sharing a bag of chips are not good ideas.
• Surfaces should be cleaned with a 10% bleach solution, but a commercial bleach cleaner will do the job. The most common surfaces to clean will be in the bathroom and the door knobs.
• Any raw fruit should be washed thoroughly because you don't know who has been handling the fruit previously.
• Get vaccinated against the flu.
• Utilize the Health Center.

Do not put any chemicals down the drain to unclog it.

Unknown and mixed chemicals can damage our pipes and be dangerous to residents and facilities' staff — contact Facilities Management to address the problem.

Breaks involve plenty of fun and traveling, but bedbugs are not a souvenir to bring back. Please review these tips to prevent bedbugs on campus:

• Inspect the bed in your motel/hotel. Take the sheet, pull it back, and look at the folds and seams of the mattress. Check the mattress pad for signs of blood spots about the size of a pencil point.
• When packing to leave, check your clothing and luggage for signs of small insects.
• If you get bitten while staying in a motel/hotel, look carefully around the mattress and bed to determine if it is a bedbug. Report the situation to the motel/hotel staff.
• Bedbugs can be killed by heat over 98 degrees. If you discover bedbugs in your clothing or linen, wash them in hot water and dry them in a dryer.
• Carefully inspect anything you buy at a yard sale, garage sale, or thrift store, and wash it in hot water just to be safe.

If You Discover Bedbugs

• Signs you might have bedbugs:
  • You have white to red bites that itch intensely;
  • You discover small, light to dark brown, quarter-centimeter bugs on your sheets or couch or
  • You discover small darkish-brown stains in the seams of your mattress.
• Call Facilities Management at 757-221-2270 during business hours of 7:30am - 4:30pm to arrange inspection and treatment.

Nothing is more annoying than having unwelcome pests in your room. Bedbugs aside, the two most common pests in our buildings are ants and cockroaches:

• Ants: these little buggers seem to show up out of nowhere, and they bring several hundred of their closest friends. While nothing beats the visceral satisfaction of using bug spray, the most effective control is using liquid bait stations — the workers ingest the poison and take it back to the colony. This can take up to 4 to 5 days to work but results in a more permanent solution.
  • These ants are attracted to food sources, predominantly liquid sugary residues like soda. So keep your food sealed; rinse cans before throwing them away; take the trash out; and keep your room clean.
• American Cockroach: These bugs like warm, humid and dark environments like basements, steam tunnels, mechanical rooms and sewers. Since warm and humid describes Williamsburg most of the time, they thrive in this area.
  • The same advice applies to roaches: keep your room clean and food sealed. In addition, if you are living in an apartment, don't store your paper bags from the grocery store under your kitchen sink; that is like putting up an apartment complex for roaches.
  • Baits and spraying are effective treatments for these pests, although the size and age of the building make it difficult to eradicate them. These bugs like to hide and will not come out during the day; however, after the exterminator visits, they actually will come out of hiding to flip upside down and shuffle off this mortal coil. While this seems like a last vindictive act of defiance, it is merely a side effect of the poison used.

Facilities Management contracts with a professional pest control company to treat our buildings weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays. In addition to the preventative work inside and outside the buildings, they will also treat resident rooms by request.  Log in to request a pest control appointment.