At first, freshman Jessica Grembowski and her roommate didn’t notice the toxic mold growing on their windowsill; they thought it was nothing but dust accumulation. But then Residence Life told them they had to evacuate their room — in just three hours.
“Our suitemates were getting visits from Physical Plant, but not us,” Grembowski said. “During the break, they bleached their room. And then when they visited West Area, they were told to move out and out of nowhere told us to move out. It was very short notice. We had to ask for an extension because it was such short notice.”
Grembowski is just one of about 15 mold cases in Virginia residence hall. Since as early as Winter Term, an unidentified species of mold has wreaked havoc on Virginia residents, forcing many students to seek refuge in other halls. The mold, though seemingly harmless at first, caused a few residents, such as Grembowski’s roommate, freshman Erin Riccio, to have allergic reactions.
“She was getting sicker and sicker and she wasn’t getting better. She’d have a fever or a cough and we thought she needed fresh air, so we would open our window, which would create condensation and make the mold grow,” Grembowski said.
Freshman Tess Pearson was the first student relocated due to the mold. She had reported mold problems back in September and thought the problem was fixed until she returned from Christmas break to find the green-black mold spreading from the windowsill onto the walls and ceiling. Pearson and her roommate moved to Sloan for the entirety of Winter Term.
“We were told it would be fixed in two, maybe two and a half weeks. It took them the entire Winter Term,” Pearson said. “The moisture and humidity causing the mold was apparently because the windows were completely rotted and didn’t keep any of the weather outside.”
After Physical Plant bleached the walls and replaced the rotted windows, Pearson and her roommate moved back in by the start of spring semester.
Since dealing with Pearson’s case, Physical Plant has become more efficient with responding to the mold outbreak. Grembowski was displaced to a dorm in West for only a week, while all of first floor Virginia was evacuated for just three hours to do an entire bleaching of the hall.
Elaine Turner, director of Residence life, visited Virginia personally to speak to students affected by the mold and kept Virginia residents updated with emails concerning the situation and tips on how to prevent the mold from growing.
“Residence Life worked with students to quell any fears, if they had any," Turner said. "We tried to keep students in the historic neighborhood where they lived. We tried to provide as little disruption as possible."
Robert Buchholz, assistant vice president for facilities management at Physical Plant, attributed the rapid growth of mold to the unusually humid winter season this year.
“We have wider swings than normal for temperature. The precipitation is above the recent yearly average, plus there has been more rain than snow due to the warm temperatures,” Buchholz said.
Because of the recent wide swings of temperature, condensation formed on the interior of many of Virginia’s windows. The cold moisture on and around the windows, combined with the warm air in the rooms, provided a source for the mold to grow.
In addition to bleaching the rooms in Virginia, Physical Plant placed dehumidifiers in the halls to lower the humidity level. They plan to continue monitoring the spaces until the humidity in Virginia stays at or below 50 percent. No other residence halls have experienced a similar mold problem thus far.
“If students in our residents halls or other apartments see condensation on the windows and window sills, they should clean up the moisture right away,” Buchholz said. “If this condition persists, they should call our service desk for university housing or their landlord for off campus housing to report the condition.”