Physical Plant and the Campus Fire Safety Office are collaborating in an effort to educate students living in woodframe houses about the care and maintenance of their homes. The WesHome program, alternatively referred to as Adopt-A-House, is the brainchild of Barbara Spalding, associate director of Campus Fire safety.
“Wesleyan teaches students so many things, but we haven’t been giving them good information about how to live in a house,” Spalding said. “I believe that everyone should know about their physical environment so as to take personal responsibility for their own comfort and awareness at the college level and beyond.”
20% of undergraduate students live in woodframe houses. WesHome aims to pair each woodframe house with a member of the University staff or faculty, who then acts as an advisor and campus contact for the residents of their “adopted” house. During the summer, all WesHome “parents” attended a training session that addressed what information would be most valuable to students. Each parent also toured his or her designated house in order to become familiarized with its particular characteristics. The voluntary program consists of a wide variety of participants, from Physical Plant staff to President Doug Bennet and University Librarian Barbara Jones.
WesHome parents arranged meetings with their residents to discuss home maintenance, and provided pizza and soda for the occasion. Each house also received a complimentary toilet plunger. According to Spalding, clogged toilets are one of students’ most reported complaints to Physical Plant.
During their meetings with residents, WesHome staff went through the contents of an Emergency Planning Folder provided to each woodframe. The folder contains important campus phone numbers, a list of the house’s safety features, and additional information such as trash and recycling pick-up days. Housemates are also encouraged to share their contact information with each other and to devise emergency strategies, such as designating a common meeting place and assembling a disaster preparedness kit.
John Meerts, vice president of Finance and Administration, volunteered for WesHome because the idea appealed to him and he thought it would be fun. Meerts is responsible for 56 and 57 Fountain Ave.
“I met with the students from both houses, and each time they were unaware that their water could be turned off using the shut-off valves under the sink and near the toilet,” Meerts said. “It was a fun experience; I don’t get to meet students often enough, so this was another way to be in touch.”
Spalding outlined the program’s three goals. Firstly, it aims to improve the safety of residents in woodframes, particularly for household fires. The majority of the 143 undergraduate woodframe houses are equipped with a fire alarm system that reports directly to the Middletown Fire Department. However, 40 of the houses are not wired to the system, meaning that their residents are responsible for calling Public Safety or 911 to report a fire incident.
“In the past we have had students safely evacuate their buildings, but then wait around for help because they had never been notified that their house was not connected to the Middletown Fire Department’s system,” Spalding said. “This is basic but very important information that was not being relayed.”
Secondly, the program aims to decrease the number of work orders reported to Physical Plant, especially during the beginning of the semester when students are not yet familiar with their living arrangements.
“By teaching residents how to prevent damage to their house, and how to take care of small issues by themselves, students are saved the trouble of having to contact Physical Plant and wait for a technician,” Spalding said. “At the same time, Physical Plant incurs fewer expenses for problems that really didn’t require an expert.”
Lastly, Spalding hopes the WesHome program increases communication on campus, which is one of the University’s strategic goals.
“It’s a very nice gesture by the University, I really enjoyed the experience and the chance to meet other people associated with Wesleyan,” said Maggie Arias ’07.
“For me, the program reinforced the challenges [that] we have to keep the woodframe houses as well maintained as the rest of our housing stock,” Meerts said.
So far, 55 of the 143 undergraduate woodframe houses have been adopted, and the reviews from participants have been largely positive. One criticism, however, has been that there was relatively little publicity about the program.
“We had no idea this was happening, we just kept hearing about lots of other houses getting pizza,” said Nikki Grijnsztein ’07. “But now that we’ve been contacted by our house parent, we are really looking forward to the meeting.”
Spalding also reminds students that their participation is vital for the program’s success.
“Many staff have worked diligently to get in touch with students and they are just not responding, so I ask them to please reply to their emails,” she said.
All faculty, staff, and students who would like to participate in the WesHome program should contact Spalding at 860-685-3780.
Leave a Reply