Dorm Sweet Dorm: How Ohio State maintains its housing<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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By Davis Beatty and Sandra Fu<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

$\"dorm$ <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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When Alexandria Brzoska clocks in at Ohio State\u2019s Engagement Center, they talk to a wide range of students, alumni and parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

To build a connection with the caller, the third-year in English and women\u2019s, gender, and sexuality studies commonly asks them how they feel about Ohio State, including questions about students\u2019 living situations, a significant aspect of the college experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Brzoska, one phone call with a parent stuck out in particular. The mom was explaining how her daughter \u2014 who lives in Morrill Tower \u2014 went to the hospital multiple times for mold exposure, and Ohio State denied alternative housing, claiming a lack of additional space.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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A parent told Alexandria Brzoska that her
daughter went to the hospital from mold exposure in
Morrill Tower, and Ohio State had denied them
alternative housing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

\u201c[The parent] was genuinely distraught,\u201d Brzoska said. \u201cShe was like, \u2018She\u2019s been sick every single time she's come home, and then she gets better, and then she goes back to school and she\u2019s sick again.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brzoska said that the student could see mold in her room and called maintenance to remove the mold, but finally attempted to kill the fungus herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the first time I\u2019ve heard of a service request about mold get ignored,\u201d Brzoska said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The experience reflects a broader pattern that The Lantern found in campus maintenance records.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

A Lantern investigation into nearly a decade of Ohio State campus maintenance service requests, totaling over 241,000 requests and encompassing each dorm on campus, reveals a system under persistent strain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some examples stand out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doors, windows and locks is the single largest problem category, accumulating nearly 41,000 requests alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elevator repairs take over two months to complete on average \u2014 the slowest of any category.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some dorms, such as Morrison Tower and Siebert Hall, wait more than 14 days on average for any request to be completed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Older buildings tend to generate more maintenance demand relative to their size, though age alone does not explain the pattern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And mold \u2014 one of the most common complaints students reported to The Lantern \u2014 is not tracked as its own category in Ohio State's maintenance system at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lantern decided to pursue this analysis following several high-profile dorm closures, specifically Taylor and Lawrence Tower.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, a survey of about 300 students commonly reported issues like mold and plumbing. The respondents said it usually took more than five days to fix the issue and that it would typically return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dave Isaacs and Dan Hedman, two university spokespeople, wrote in a statement about what goes into dorm maintenance, Ohio State\u2019s Facilities Condition Index, facilities\u2019 budget, aging dorms, renovations, and explaining specific findings about Morrill and Lincoln Towers and Neil Building.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining residence halls is a complex, year-round operation that includes Facilities (maintenance and custodial), Planning, Projects and Space Management, and Housing and Residence Education (HRE),\u201d Isaacs said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsay Wagner, vice president of strategic communications for APPA, a consulting firm that works with universities over their dorm planning and maintenance, said problems like these are common among universities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ohio State has an institutional membership with APPA and assessments are conducted by university staff, Isaacs said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaacs said APPA helps Ohio State create guidelines for maintenance and custodial operational staffing for educational facilities, establish an industry standard for cleaning times, task list, and inspections, teach ongoing education and best practices and professional development.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Interest in how Ohio State maintains its dorms arose when Taylor Tower unexpectedly closed due to a major pipe burst. This forced over 700 students and staff to find alternative housing two days before the spring semester began, <\/span>per prior Lantern reporting<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within hours of learning about the closure, <\/span>students were asked<\/span><\/a><\/span> to either delay moving in for the semester or find temporary housing with friends and family members nearby.<\/span><\/p>\n

If students decided to live off campus<\/a><\/span>, they received a $1000 stipend to cover any unexpected costs and received a full refund after cancelling their spring housing contract.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Taylor Tower closed in January because of a major pipe rupture. Over 700 students were forced out of the north campus dormitory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

The university decided to close the dorm for the rest of the semester to repair the extensive plumbing and elevator damage caused by the pipe failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

A little over a year earlier, residents of Lawrence Tower found fully formed mushrooms growing out of the dorm walls, prompting the temporary relocation of 40 students from 19 rooms.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Lawrence Tower was closed in 2024 when students reported mushrooms growing out of the walls.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Initially, Ohio State said the fungal growth was caused by a water leak, resulting in drywall damage. However, the university asked the 500 residents to find more permanent alternative accommodations to minimize disruptions during renovations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternatively, the group of parents hired PriorityLab, which found in an independent mold report that 27 of the 28 rooms in Lawrence showed significant mold growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

A group of students and parents affected by mold exposure in Lawrence filed a joint lawsuit against Ohio State, alleging that the university was aware of the problem.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Lantern does not know the current status of the lawsuit. Jedidiah Bressman, the attorney representing most of the students, did not respond in time for publication.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u00a0Lawrence Tower\u2019s entrance sits empty after Ohio State closed the dormitory in 2024. A sign on the door reads: \u201cClosed for Spring 2025.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Mold and plumbing are not the only issues commonly found at Ohio State dorms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through a public records request, The Lantern obtained and built upon a dataset of all facility service requests submitted to Ohio State\u2019s Facilities Operations and Development across all campus buildings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaacs said Ohio State does not classify maintenance due to user errors or regular effects of aging dorms. Instead, the university tracks reactionary service requests, and preventative and corrective work orders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaacs said Student Life completed 36,000 planned work orders with about double that number in labor hours, with specific tasks dependent on the building infrastructure and building systems within the facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each entry included the date and time a request was submitted, when the request was complete, the building and room where the problem was reported and the specific problem reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

The requests were grouped into 14 problem categories, including the year the dorm was built and the number of beds it holds, to provide a more accurate comparison.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

$\"problems\"$ <\/span><\/div>\n\n

\u00a0The top 10 problem categories are plotted here, with their total service request count from September 2017 to January 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Across all residence halls, doors, windows and locks received the most submissions, accumulating nearly 41,000 complaints.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Appliances and laundry ranked second with 36,700, and plumbing followed not far behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Together, these three categories account for roughly half of all service requests filed during this time period. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

$\"requests_vs_beds\"$ <\/span><\/div>\n\n

Service requests are plotted against bed count for each OSU residence hall from September 2017-January 2026. Building size explains most of the variation \u2014 larger dorms generate more requests \u2014 but outliers tell a different story. Lincoln Tower generates far more requests than its size predicts, while Morrill Tower, the largest dorm on campus, falls below the trend line despite its age.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Morrill Tower, the largest residence hall on campus with 1,400 beds, actually falls below the average when adjusted for size, suggesting it is comparatively well-maintained despite its age.<\/span><\/p>\n

In comparison, Lincoln Tower only houses around 600 students, but is well above the trend line, suggesting that it generates far more requests than its size would predict.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaacs said Lincoln and Morrill have very different types of occupants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMorrill accommodates more student beds, while Lincoln has a higher percentage of office space,\u201d Isaacs said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lantern findings also show wide variation in how quickly problems get resolved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the 15 dorms that take the longest to repair, the average time to complete the request is about 11 to 15 days, and Morrison Tower leads in that category.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

$\"time\"$ <\/span><\/div>\n\n

Elevator repairs take longer to resolve than any other maintenance category at OSU residence halls, averaging nearly 1,800 hours \u2014 or about 75 days \u2014 from submission to completion. Fire and safety alarms, furniture and beds, and building structure repairs follow. Plumbing, despite generating the third-most requests of any category, ranks among the fastest to resolve.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

On average, elevator repairs take over two months to complete, which Isaacs did not provide an explanation for. Plumbing, despite its high number of requests, is among the fastest to resolve.<\/span><\/p>\n

The data also shows a pattern: older buildings tend to generate more maintenance requests relative to their size.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But age isn't the only factor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n