New checkout policy enacted

Starting this May, the Housing Office is implementing a new room check-out policy. In addition to billing students for excessive cleaning or maintenance, each resident of a room in unacceptable condition will be fined $300.

The new measure, announced last week, has been put in place in light of the poor condition of some rooms at check-out time last year, according to University Inspections Manager Ken Paulaski.

"It's just going to be a deterrent for students to try to leave rooms in a more satisfactory condition," said Paulaski. "And to recoup the loss and manpower that it takes to restore these rooms."

Last year, "somewhere in the range of 20 rooms might have been affected [by serious destruction]," according to Jon Baer, director of building services. Some of the rooms could have been suites and some singles, Baer said, so the number of students involved was about 50.

Baer said that the new action was in part an effort to ease the jobs of the maintenance workers cleaning rooms at the end of the year, who spend large amounts of time trying to repair the few severely damaged rooms.

"[Such destruction] increases the burden put on the janitorial staff trying to turn rooms over quickly and thoroughly at the end of the year," Baer said. "The janitorial staff who work in the buildings are so relieved by this policy."

Conditions that may put rooms in the unacceptable category include graffiti, trash buildup and defaced furniture or walls.

"Basically, this is for the small segment of students that totally trash their rooms," said Lisa Depaul, assistant director of undergraduate housing. "If people leave their rooms in a condition close to the one they found it in, they should be fine."

The new policy, as it reads in the e-mail sent to undergraduate students last week, states that each occupant of the room will be fined $300. However, if one inhabitant is entirely responsible for the damage, this may not be the case.

"Before [the new policy], all students [in the room] were billed a restoration fee unless certain responsible individuals identified themselves," Paulaski said.

Depaul added, "I'm sure that when . . . they do their inspections, clearly if they have a three-room suite and one is immaculate while the other two are trashed, they will take it into account [which student lives in which room]."

The e-mail sent by the Housing Office warned that students leaving their rooms in atrocious conditions could also face disciplinary consequences.

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"In the really, really extreme cases, in which there is a total lack of respect for the room and furniture, behavior might be sent to the dean of undergraduate students for review," Depaul explained.

In reference to students on financial aid or who might find the fine to be exceedingly high, Depaul said, "If you can't afford to pay [the fine], then that's all the more reason to leave your room in an acceptable condition and [to] make sure your roommates do, too."