Last Monday, I returned from afternoon classes ready for a nap and found a yellow sticky-note on my desk. "In response to your call ... Facilities Services replaced your bed frame," it read. Considering that this was the first day of the semester, had I called Facilities and requested a new bed frame, I would have been impressed with their speedy and efficient response. The thing is: I never called Facilities, and to my knowledge there was nothing wrong with my bed frame other than a little rust. Perhaps the employees of Facilities Services have recently acquired some sort of pre-cognitive ability, but I doubt it.
Later in the week, the Facilities post-it fairy struck again. When my roommate's bedroom ceiling started leaking, she immediately called the Maintenance hotline (898-7208). Since we have two bedrooms, she made sure to specify the exact location of the problem. Two days later we returned from lunch and found a note that the Facilities personnel "did not observe any kind of leak in the bathroom ceiling." Frustrated, my roommate called Facilities again, explaining that there had been a mix-up, and was informed that someone would stop by the next afternoon.
Several hours after my roommate gave up on waiting for him; the repairman left a note on our wipe-off board informing us that he did not do any repairs because no one was home. The operator told her that a repairman with the "necessary skills" would not be available again until the next week.
It's sad, really. We don't even live in one of the high rises.
When the repairman did show up bright and early Tuesday morning, his explanation of the problem came in the form of an inaudible mumble on his way out the door. Since he had not actually done much other than briefly look up at my roommate's ceiling, we both ran outside and stopped him just as he was leaving the building. He yelled down the hallway to tell us that there was nothing he could do. Apparently, we need a roof specialist. Standing there still wearing my PJs, I couldn't help but think that there's got to be a better way to do this.
Students at Penn have a lot of complaints about Facilities Services for a lot of reasons. Since the high rises' $79.5 million "facelift," I'd imagine the frequency of these complaints has greatly increased. The department is often characterized as incompetent, lazy, unresponsive, chronically under-funded and disorganized. It has been suggested before that an increase in the Facilities budget would put an end to most of these grievances. I'm not so sure. Increasing funding without increasing departmental organization and efficiency in turn would do little good. In seven days, Facilities made four treks out to my dorm room when one would've sufficed.
As much I'd like to, I cannot make any suggestions about the department's organization. Although I've spent almost two weeks trying to figure out its organizational structure, I still have little idea how things in Facilities Services actually work. It really must be the only department at Penn without a flowchart.
However, I do know that improving the quality of communication between personnel and students would benefit Facilities Services and students alike. Frankly, the post-it notes just aren't cutting it. The students of the University of Pennsylvania are for the most part reasonable people, and Facilities Services would earn some much needed respect if the department was more straightforward with us. Since emergencies take precedence over regular work requests, define for us what exactly constitutes a facilities emergency.
When there's going to be a delay in the response, let us know. We'll be understanding. It would be useful to know that, unlike the day shift, the night personnel don't have clearance to enter our rooms without our presence. Explain to us when a specialist is needed or a part must be ordered. If the pest-control guy only works for Penn a couple days a week, then tell us. But definitely make sure that the repairmen go to the right rooms in the right buildings. While they might not solve all of Facilities' problems, these small steps could greatly decrease students' general frustration with the department.
After all, there's probably still some poor kid in the other Gregory building sleeping on a broken bed.
Amara Rockar is a sophomore political science major from St. Louis. Out of Range appears on Fridays.
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