Luke Goldade, a freshman at UC Berkeley, has watched the ceiling tiles in his dorm hallway swell from water leaks since January as unrelenting rainstorms soaked the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of the normally cream-colored ceiling panels on his floor in Block 3, one of three older high-rise condominium complexes, have turned yellowish with brown water rings. Goldade also reported seeing mold in Ida Sproul, a building in Unit 3.
Goldade’s building isn’t the only one with water damage from that unusually wet winter. Flooding and water leaks also occurred in Units 1 and 2 during rainstorms, according to half a dozen students interviewed by SFGATE. The students said they were dealing with water seeping into rooms, common hallways and stairwells.
UC Berkeley spokesman Adam Ratliff wrote in an email to SFGATE that students should report problems “immediately” so that they can be fixed “in a timely manner.” Goldade’s roommate, Max Velasquez, said the housing assistant on his floor in Unit 3 filed a child support request on her behalf because of the water damage. Goldade said they had never heard of it from the university. “Nothing ever happens,” Goldade said.
SFGATE sent Ratliff a list of the problems the students shared with him, including the damage to Goldade’s soil. Ratliff wrote that the university “is not aware of any reports of leaks or mold problems in Unit 3.”
Freshman Livi Christiansen, who lives in Freeborn Hall in Unit 1, said water has leaked through areas where ceiling tiles have been removed due to rain damage and students are using trash and recycling bins to catch the water. Christiansen added that the hall starts smelling with every leak.
View of the eighth floor of UC Berkeley Unit 1’s Freeborn Hall, where ceiling tiles have been removed due to weather damage and leaking water is collected in buckets.
Photos by Rae Wymer
Elena Hsieh, a housing assistant who oversees students in Freeborn, said the rain damage has happened multiple times with each new storm this semester and has been particularly bad on the top floor of the building. She feels the university doesn’t make maintenance a priority, and she said she’s unsure how to guide students who come to her with these issues. “I usually just recommend students to fill out a maintenance request form and wait for the maintenance team to come to their case — an uncomfortable reality,” she wrote in an email to SFGATE.
SFGATE inquired with the university about the missing ceiling panels and leaks in Unit 1, but received no comment.
In Unit 2, the community music practice rooms were closed early in the semester due to flooding, frustrating students like Charles Luu who rely on these areas to complete coursework. “I went to the music room to use it and there’s a sign saying you can’t use it,” said Luu, a music minor who takes classes that require access to a piano . “Quite literally, the entire area is completely sealed off.”
Ratliff said restoration teams have been on site at Unit 2 since January and believes affected common areas will be open again by the end of April. He added that the flooding did not affect the post office or most other student services. Luu confirmed that other parts of the center are open.
Goldade called the university’s communications “really bad” and said it didn’t seem to know whose job it was to fix these problems. Goldade said mold was growing in a roommate’s room from the dampness; That student’s application for child support also went unanswered, he said. The windows in Goldade’s room and almost half the rooms on his floor are also leaking, he said; When UC Berkeley housing officials conducted mandatory dorm inspections, they took photos of the leaking windows, but they still haven’t been fixed, Goldade said.
In the meantime, both Goldade and Hsieh have accepted that there is not much the students can do to solve the problems other than file alimony claims. Hsieh said she’s trying to be patient and hopes the damage will be repaired eventually, but Goldade said he’s ready to move out of the dorms next year and deal with the dormitory issues. “Nobody really takes responsibility and thinks I can fix it, it’s my job,” Goldade said. “There is no ownership of the problems.”
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https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/uc-berkeley-students-report-water-damage-in-dorms-17889558.php
