Mold found in Suites; Multiple students relocated

Students living in the Suites at UCO may have received an email from UCO Housing with instructions such as:

• Keep the temperature set to 68 degrees.
• Keep the fan setting on “Low.”
• Keep the “Auto Fan” setting off.

In the email, UCO Housing and Residential Engagement are said to be actively working with HVAC vendors to assess and address humidity levels in the building.

What might the issue be?

The simple answer is mold.

“We have had students making reports of mold in the suites,” said Chelsea Ratterman, director of marketing for Campus Enterprises. “We have identified it in the units and on some surfaces.”

Ratterman said the mold is being traced back to high humidity in the building. This being the reason for the requirements in the email.

While housing is addressing the issue, many students have been moved to temporary spaces for the time being. However, some students have described their experiences with this move as less-than-satisfactory, claiming housing had been very dismissive with early reports.

Maddox Morgan, a freshman student at UCO living in the Suites, said her suitemates had reported mold to housing and maintenance, and shortly after mold had been confirmed to be in the suitemates room and the shared bathroom.

Morgan claims the only reason she was made aware of the mold was because of her suitemates, she had never been alerted by housing or maintenance. The suitemates would ultimately relocate due to the mold.

Shortly after this, Morgan was in the shared bathroom taking a shower when she said she heard voices coming from her former suitemate’s room. As the door to the bathroom began to open, she quickly grabbed a towel and she claimed two female maintenance workers walked in.

Morgan took the issue up with housing and also sought to relocate because of the mold.

She said three meetings took place with housing about both the mold and the maintenance incident, and it was not until parents were involved that she said she was listened to.

Lacey Laymon, a UCO freshman living in the Suites, also made reports of mold being found in her room.

To accommodate for these reports, housing did an inspection of the room and in an email sent to Laymon said there were no visual indicators of concern, and that the discoloration on her vents was noted as dirt.

Also in the email, housing said a thorough cleaning would be conducted and an air sample test would be conducted to confirm air quality.

While the students both described their experiences as dismissive, housing sought to rectify the situation through price-matched relocation and thorough cleanings.

This is not the first time this year the Suites have had an issue. At the beginning of 2024, a pipe burst caused the relocation of several students. However, these two issues are not connected, according to Ratterman.

“That whole project on the eastside of the Suites was down-to-the-guts,” said Ratterman, in reference to the reconstruction post-pipe burst. “We’re not tracing [mold] back to anything on the eastside of the building.”

Aside from the email sent to residents, housing is doing thorough checks of the Suites, according to Ratterman.