Following mold concerns, the San Diego State University Office of Housing Administration released a “Preventative Maintenance Plan” via email to residents of the Maya and Olmeca dorms on Oct. 14.

Through the Preventative Maintenance Plan, the OHA will conduct room visits, clean and service HVAC vents, inspect potential signs of water intrusion, address areas where moisture may accumulate and provide residents personalized reminders about cleanliness based on the results of room inspections. 

Additionally, the OHA addressed mold growing in the Maya and Olmeca dorms. 

“While there have been a few isolated reports of naturally occurring mold spore spotting on some surfaces in individual spaces, there is no indication of a widespread issue,” they stated. 

However, multiple Maya and Olmeca residents say that mold is a widespread issue within their dorm buildings. Additionally, they feel that not enough has been done to address it. 

Freshman and former Maya resident Mia Westville, who moved out of Maya due to what she said was mold in her room, said that she started believing there was mold in her room when she noticed unusual humidity after she moved in. 

“All of our clothes were wet,” Westville said. “All of our bedsheets were wet. We would walk in the door and like everything would be wet … It always smelled terrible.” 

 When a hygrometer was used to measure the humidity level of the room, the results read 76.7% relative humidity, which is above the recommended level of 60% or lower according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

However, when Westville submitted a service request regarding what she believed to be mold in her dorm room windows, she said her concerns were not properly addressed. An industrial hygiene specialist was sent to inspect her dorm room and told her the only thing in her dorm was dirt. 

“She ran no test. She just looked at it for a second and was like, ‘Yeah, just clean it yourself, it’s not toxic,’” Westville said.

However, Westville and her roommate began to get sick. She was told by medical professionals that her symptoms were due to exposure to mold. 

“I went to urgent care twice, and both times they said [it was] definitely mold,” she said. “They even wanted me to do a blood test to see if I have a mold allergy.” 

She reported having a migraine, feeling nauseous and having cold-like symptoms that she believed were linked to being in her dorm room. Her roommate, who has a documented mold allergy, developed a fever. 

Despite speaking to a mold specialist and multiple doctors, all of whom believed that Westville had been exposed to mold, she said that the university never acknowledged the existence of mold in her dorm, with the housing department saying after a new inspection that their room was unsafe to live in due to the presence of dust in their bedframes. 

“[Dust] was almost like a codeword, like they didn’t wanna admit that there was mold in the dorm,” she said. 

Although Westville was eventually able to relocate to a different dorm building on campus, she said that she was not taken seriously throughout the process.

“I felt so not respected,” said Westville. “I was trying to be so respectful to all the people I spoke to, and I just felt like they were just talking to me like I was stupid, which I didn’t appreciate.” 

Westville’s mother is currently considering legal action against the university because of the alleged mold. 

“I think she wants to go to small claims court or whatever because so much of our personal belongings have been damaged from mold,” she said.

Lloyd Vincent, a freshman who lives in Maya, also relocated to another building after discovering mold in his room. However, he said that no alternative housing options were provided to him by the university, and that he slept in a friend’s room until the problem was addressed. His roommate slept in a hotel room.

Sasha Marland, a freshman and Maya resident who identifies as disabled, said that the presence of mold in Maya’s showers has made it hard for her to maintain proper hygiene. Because of her disability, Marland prefers to use the one shower in her bathroom that includes a bench for accessibility. 

“It is consistently the worst one,” Marland said. “There’s mold all over the underside of the bench, and hair everywhere, and because it’s the farthest away from the door, the custodians don’t clean it.” 

Because of this, Marland said that she has been forced to either forgo showering or use the standing showers, which cause her discomfort.

 “I’ve been skipping showers as much as I can, or using the standing ones, whatever one is clean, but it’s very painful for me to stand for so long,” she said.

Marland, too, said that her concerns were not taken seriously by the university. 

Despite numerous service requests from her and her roommate, Marland said that not enough was being done to clean the mold out of the bathrooms. When she attempted to point out the issue to other people on her floor through her resident advisor’s Google Chatroom, the RA deleted her message and sent Marland a private one. 

“I understand you’re concerned and want to look out for other residents but next time you have a concern please message me on the side so I can handle it,” her RA said. “We don’t want to cause mass panic on the floor.” 

This response frustrated Marland

“I was very angry at that because we are paying $4,000 a month for the state of the dorm to be something that can cause mass panic and we’re not even allowed to talk about it,” she said. 

This is not the first time Maya and Olmeca residents have reported issues with mold. In 2018, The Daily Aztec reported on the issue, talking to students who claimed that mold in the dorms could have been handled more efficiently and with more care for dorm residents.

The OHA reinstated that there is no widespread problem of mold to investigate and act upon, reporting that the mold is an individualized problem in certain dorm rooms.

“It is inaccurate to report there is a “mold problem” on any floor of the Maya & Olmeca Residential Community,” they stated in an email. “Inquiries related to suspected mold in residential communities often originate from isolated incidents.”