Not only did students get displaced from Williams Hall, but some of them noticed a few of their belongings were missing.
After the pipe burst in Williams Hall on Dec. 25, students were told to get anything they needed from their apartments. To their surprise, their items were in dirty bags, placed in random places around the room and some were even missing.
Materials left in a kitchen by workers in Williams Hall. Photo credit: Hannah Effinger
One student, who will be kept anonymous due to an ongoing investigation, filed a police report due to her stolen items.
“My friend came with me to look at the damage,” the student said. “She walked into my room and saw my box opened, the bag was taken out and what was inside was missing. I have torn my apartment up looking for it multiple times, so I filed a police report.”
The student is upset with the lack of communication from the university.
“They never told us a cleaning crew was coming,” the student said. “They never told us any of our stuff was being bagged up. They brought in an outside crew for both jobs. We don’t know their history or if the school did background checks on these people and they’re still coming into the apartments while we’re there after people have reported stolen things.”
Dust left in a living room in Williams Hall. Photo credit: Hannah Effinger
Kieran Barrett, chief of the Montclair State police department, stated that the university police department is aware of these allegations.
“We take all reports of this nature seriously, and they are investigated fully with the complete support of University Police, the Office of Student Development and Campus Life and the entire institution,” Barrett said.
Discarded items left in a Williams Hall laundry room. Photo credit: Hannah Effinger
Other students don’t feel as supported going to the police as others. Kaley Fitzpatrick, a senior visual communication design major, is one of them.
“When I was packing up all my stuff that was just thrown around I noticed a pile of two necklaces and a bracelet and one necklace was missing that is usually with them hanging on the wall,” Fitzpatrick said. “I haven’t filed a police report yet because I don’t know what they’re going to do. This was my grandma’s necklace. Just them sending a link saying ‘file with homeowners insurance’ or ‘file a police report’ doesn’t help. Is there a number I can call? Do I just show up?”
Resident Kaley Fitzpatrick, a senior visual communication design major, stands outside of Williams Hall.
Katie Lawrence | The Montclarion
Samantha Seiser, a senior educational foundations major, has also noticed some of her stuff missing when going through the bags of things around her apartment.
“Since they are re-doing our kitchen the cabinets were ripped out,” Seiser said. “I have not found any of my pots and pans. Also when I walked into my room, my utensils were thrown on top of the heater.”
Seiser and her family were taken aback by the lack of care and disrespect of their belongings by staff.
“My parents were there helping me move out my stuff and were very upset,” Seiser said. “While moving out, one of the workers asked my mom for some of my snacks.”
Later, when going through their bagged items, the family was shocked at how careless the team was.
“Our toothbrushes and personal items from the bathroom were put into bags that had Clorox cleaning supplies in them, so everything had to be thrown out,” Seiser said. “They used my towels to clean up the grease that was on the floor when they took the bottom of the kitchen out and they didn’t cover my bedding when sanding, so all of the plasterboard dust was on it.”
Samantha Seiser, a senior educational foundations major, had her things covered in plasterboard dust.
Erin Lawlor | The Montclarion
Vanessa Glaser, a senior earth and environmental science major, is Occupational Safety and Health Administration certified and she is concerned for her and her fellow student’s health.
“Mold is going to go everywhere that water does, it is airborne,” Glaser said. “If the third floor [of Williams Hall] is still deemed unlivable, how are we sure it’s not spreading around the building? Or [spreading] when students are moving to other buildings and carrying the dust and debris with them to the buildings they are moving into?”
Glaser and her roommates were told the damage was not that bad but when she came to retrieve her things, that is not what she saw.
“In our room in particular, my roommate had a hole in her ceiling,” Glaser said. “They had to patch it up, the water was coming through the ceiling, not just on the floor. They also told us workers would start immediately, but when I arrived on campus on [Jan. 1], there was no one there and no work done yet.”
Glaser was also among the students that noticed some of her stuff missing.
“I drink Monster Energy,” Glaser said. “I had an entire case, now it’s missing. There was an open sandwich on our table, which pushes the narrative that they are eating our things.”
The apartment was home to Glaser and her roommates. Glaser described it as very much lived in and she believes it was completely disregarded by the crew.
“We do a thing where whenever anyone comes into our apartment, they make a drawing and we hang it up,” Glaser said. “There were pieces of paper ripped in half, thrown on the floor and one of the drawings was in the bathroom on the wall with just a clump of plaster on it. It wasn’t water damaged, it was just the remediation team disregarding our personal items.”
Senior earth and environmental science major Vanessa Glaser is Occupational Safety and Health Administration certified and concerned for her and her peers' health.
Erin Lawlor | The Montclarion
University spokesperson Andrew Mees commented on the allegations.
“Yes, the university is aware. We are in constant contact with University Police,” Mees said. “The university does not require background checks on contractors. We normally require a performance bond bid process, but since this was an emergency situation, we did not utilize that process. Both contractors hired for this situation have worked on campus extensively over a period of multiple years with no reported issues.”
Mees also assured that air quality checks were happening in the affected rooms.
“To date, all air quality checks have been satisfactory and no problems have been identified,” Mees said.
