As would be expected from any college with students living on campus, Saint Anselm’s Physical Plant department undertakes continual projects, including recycling endeavors, energy consumption reduction plans, and maintenance requests.

   “We receive about 25 to 40 a day that will jump to over 100 a day for the first two weeks when the students arrive and then we average out to 9,000 a year,” said Don Moreau, Director of Physical Plant.

Unfortunately though, with so many requests, some of these may be put off for extended periods of time. Paxton Delano, ’14, and roommates had a dysfunctional, non-locking front door on their townhouse apartment that went untreated for two months.

“At first when we moved in, we just thought of it as a minor issue,” said Delano. “Everyone has something they need fixed when they move in. It’s now December and we still have problems with it. It’s extremely frustrating because it isn’t like a light or something small.”

With so many requests to handle, Physical Plant tries to organize which maintenance issues to address based on priority.

“Most of our work orders come via e-mail and then they are entered into our work order software program. We also receive some work orders by phone,” said Moreau. “Then our staff will input them when they see issues on campus. The students are required to go through Res. Life for dorm issues and the Res. Life staff will e-mail us with their request.”

“We always treat the students’ work orders first and try to accomplish them on the same day, but that does not happen all the time depending on the request, special events, weather, special projects, etc. Then the faculty and after that the staff comes next is how we prioritize them.”

While Saint Anselm is a small, tight-knit campus community, anyone would still feel a certain level of anxiety knowing that their front door did not lock.

“I will not deny that this campus is a safe place, but when you don’t have that security of a door being looked, it is pretty scary,” said Delano. “The wind could open our door. Anyone who wanted to come in could and that was scary. Every noise we heard caused us to jump and wonder if someone had gotten in.”

As would be expected when dealing with unresolved issues, the students are understandably frustrated. “I completely understand that maintenance has many projects on their plate; however, I do believe that an apartment of girls that does not have a safe door should be a priority,” said Delano. “It still doesn’t lock all the time and we’ve had it ‘fixed’ three times. It’s not just the door either. It took almost three months to get our fridge that wouldn’t stay shut replaced. It is just frustrating because housing is so expensive here, but yet I feel like getting something fixed is like pulling teeth.”