Photo courtesy of Apartments.com
By: Kaleigh Werner, Assistant Editor in Chief and Lauren Ofman, Editor in Chief
The first week of classes looked differently this year as 175 students quickly transferred their belongings from a personalized dorm to a hotel room. The evacuees were residents of Townhouse Row who planned a longer reunion with their roommates and hallmates than they got.
According to reports by The GW Hatchet, environmental concerns were voiced this past Tuesday and Friday regarding an emerging unknown illness and multiple negative COVID tests experienced by residents of two townhouses.
Emergency visits to local healthcare clinics and GW Hospital were reported as residents witnessed fevers and possible respiratory infections deriving from an unknown cause.
Tuesday marked the beginning of a two-to-three week hiatus from campus and a three hour packing period in which residents were forced to forgo their central campus abodes and move to The River Inn and Yours Truly hotels.
According to an email by the Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Brian Joyce and the Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning, Baxter Goodly, residents will be given an additional 125 dining dollars and opportunities to still use SafeRide, which has now expanded its route to include the off campus hotels.
While many students were aware of their neighbors and housemates developing illnesses, most were unaware of the severity to which they were feeling ill. One sophomore, who wishes to remain anonymous, living in Townhouse D, stated their initial thoughts:
“The air conditioning was giving people irritated throats and coughs and we all were rundown and spreading a cold to each other from living together,” they said.
While a high transmission of the common cold isn’t uncommon in the initial weeks of the school, a chaotic welcome week wasn’t the cause of this illness. This student received an email Sunday revealing the presence of black mold in the townhouse and the need for a speedy evacuation.
Grace Eberts, a sophomore and resident of Townhouse D said, “Since we moved in, people started getting sick. Everyone was having allergies and irritation in their lungs and throat. I was having irritated eyes and a sore throat. In the past week, the sickness really started to ramp up.” Eberts expressed that her concern was not for her health, but for an impromptu change in her living situation.
While staying at a nice hotel with extra dining allowance may seem like the high life, Eberts said the change of scenery is taking away from “the normal college experience,” which she lacked her Freshman year due to the pandemic.
“I have a single room and was separated from my roommate, so I am a bit lonely. It has already affected my transportation to class and my eating. There are no GWorld places by the hotel and the walk to class is a lot farther. It will just take more planning and finding places to study,” Eberts said.
At this time, there is no definitive date that Townhouse Row will be livable again and still no confirmed cause as to what exactly caused the outbreak of black mold on campus.
