Some houses allowed to host events after meeting with Res Life

Meg Itoh
News Editor

Residence Life has restricted small house events over the past two weeks, citing safety concerns.

According to Doug Laditka, associate vice president of Facilities Management & Development, multiple teams of contractors and the College’s in-house carpentry shop are currently working on repairs.

“This is a significant priority for us, so we are working feverishly to complete the repairs and upgrades,” he said.

The time required for repairs to be completed is difficult to predict.

“With every house being constructed differently, with varying ages and different challenges, it will be difficult to estimate when we will be completed with repairs,” said Laditka.

If it were just structural work, repairs for all houses would be completed in a matter of weeks. But Laditka said the challenges relate to obstacles such as ductwork, gas lines, furnaces, hot water heaters, plumbing [and] drain lines, etc.

“Worst case, we will finish repairs this summer in any houses we cannot get to during the academic year,” said Laditka.

“We do not want to inconvenience students in the houses, so anything that will require extended downtimes [multiple days] with electrical, hot water or heat will need to wait until spring or summer break,” he said.

Laditka noted that if the repairs require only a few hours, Res Life would coordinate with the occupants to minimize the impact.

Certain small houses will be permitted to host events after discussion with Res Life representatives.

“Once a house has been cleared by the Service Center, they will meet with Jessica Ettell [coordinator of student rights and responsibility] and myself,” said Nathan Fein, director of Residence Life.

“This meeting will reiterate how to register an event, the responsibilities of those who are looking to host events, the importance of the fire code numbers and how to maintain the house space,” he said.

Fein said the information discussed during the meeting will be passed onto Security and Protective Services (SPS), in order to share knowledge of which spaces are approved to host events.

“Once this happens they will be allowed to register an event as they previously could,” said Fein.