Envision that the very first thing you notice about your dorm upon walking in is the mildew. It continues to come back no matter what you try. Living with mildew was my reality, along with many other students, in the 2024-2025 school year, but it should not continue for us or the incoming students.
Louisiana’s high temperatures and humidity make homes extremely susceptible to mold and mildew formation. While it is impossible to truly get rid of mold spores indoors due to their presence in house dust, mold spores cannot continue to grow if no moisture is present. It is important that ULM takes preventative measures prior to students’ arrival to their dorms.
For students such as myself who were wondering what is being done to tackle this issue, I got in contact with the director of Residential Life, Tresea Buckhaults, and asked her a few questions.
Question: Is there anything that Residential Life or maintenance does to ensure that when students return to campus, mold/mildew is not present?
Answer: We have a professional cleaning company that cleans all rooms on campus prior to students moving in. In addition, our staff will have walked, prior to the opening of school, every room checking behind the cleaning company. The A/C units have dehumidifiers built into them. However, we have discovered some units were not staying on long enough to pull the moisture, caused by high humidity, out of the air which was causing the walls to sweat–thus causing mildew to form. In order to correct this, over the summer we installed thermostats in Madison, Masur and Ouachita, which forces the units to stay on longer and pull more moisture out of the air. We continue to monitor those rooms and it appears so far to have corrected the problem.
Q: What suggestions do you have for preventing mold/mildew from spreading?
A: In Madison, Masur and Ouachita they have an unlimited amount of hot water and students naturally tend to take longer showers which will cause condensation in the bathrooms and if the bathroom is not aired out and the steam gets into the bedrooms this can cause moisture that can form into mildew. Airing out the bathroom and with the new thermostats installed for the A/C units are positive steps in our continuing efforts to correct the issue. Using Clorox spray or wipes at the first sign of mildew will prevent it from spreading.
Q: “How should students go about reporting issues with mold/mildew?
A: If a resident at any time feels like they are having an issue, they can submit a work order and outline the action they have taken, and maintenance will check to see what the problem is.
