Committees debate new policy on dorm furniture removal fees

The Facilities Department — including Building Services, Housing and Maintenance — and the Undergraduate Life Committee are currently debating the details of a new policy that prohibits students from removing furniture from their rooms at any time and for any reason starting at the beginning of the 2001-2002 school year.

"One of the things that's been recognized within the Facilities Department is that there have been over the past years a lot of issues related to the furniture being moved out of dorm rooms resulting in some pretty big problems," said Building Services director Jonathan Baer.

The policy will prohibit students from moving any furniture out of their rooms, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Housing Lisa DePaul said. Inventories will be taken of each dorm room at the beginning and end of the school year, and students will be charged full replacement fees for any furniture that is missing from the room at the end of the year.

"In the past when students moved furniture out, they had to pay a fee to Building Services to locate the furniture and put it back," DePaul said. "Now students are responsible for their own furniture."

With regard to the proposed policy, Baer said that "an overwhelming majority of universities have something like this in place, and what's done now at Princeton is highly unusual."

Baer said damage to both the dorm buildings and to the furniture itself has created a need for more strict policies regulating the removal of dorm room furniture.

"There's been wear and tear to the building from furniture being moved around, such as sprinkler heads being knocked off," Baer said. "There has also been wear and tear to the furniture itself. Some people move it appropriately, but others drag it down the stairs."

Baer also said discarded furniture can create a fire safety hazard. "When people are moving in at the beginning of the year it's literally hard to walk down the hallway," Baer said.

But Baer said he thought the greatest concern was the lack of respect for janitors shown by students under the current furniture policies. "Biggest in my perspective is the impact it has on the janitor when they have to spend three or four days moving furniture down hallways, across courtyards and up and down five flights of stairs," Baer said. "Someone has to remove the furniture, and it's the janitors."

"I can't tell you how demoralizing it is when they've spent time preparing a building for the students' arrival and then the furniture is just taken out and dropped there and has to be moved."

ULC chair Barham Ray '03, who has been meeting with the Facilities department to discuss the new policy, said he thinks the policy should be modified to better accommodate the needs of students. "[The Facilities Department] kind of made a unilateral decision that may have been the simplest and easiest solution for Building Services but not the best one for students," Ray said.

Ray said he thinks many of the Facilities Department's suggestions are important, though he thinks the best solution is to allow students to move their unneeded furniture into on-campus storage areas during the school year.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"We do want to find a way that will hold students accountable for any damage they do to the furniture, and our number one concern is fire safety, but we still think it's reasonable and possible for students to use the abundant University storage facilities," Ray said.

Ray also said he agrees that janitors deserve more respect, but they should also be available to help students with their furniture. "We definitely don't want to disrespect the janitors, but if they're available we think it's their job to help out, and we expect students to help, too," he said.

Ray said he also thinks the policy is too sweeping and should be modified to accommodate students with special needs. "This ban isn't written to have exceptions for people who have medical disabilities, for example a person who has scoliosis and needs a special bed or handicapped people who need special furniture," he said.

DePaul said some of the problems of unwanted dorm furniture should be remedied by campus-wide furniture improvements that will take place over the summer. About 650 new sets of furniture will be put into dorm rooms, and those dorms that do not receive new furniture will receive the best furniture from other dorms on campus.

"Basically, all the furniture is getting better and better," DePaul said. "When students see new furniture being put in, coupled with safety reasons and repairs, I think they'll understand that we're making great strides in terms of furniture in all the dorm rooms," she said.

Baer said the policy definitely will be implemented, but he and the members of the Facilities Department are working to address the concerns voiced by Ray and other members of the USG on behalf of students. "We're trying to find creative options to address these issues," Baer said. "But even if this policy is modified a little it should be enacted by next year."