The Maintenance Department of the University of Bridgeport has been making an effort to improve the quality of the facilities available for students. The latest renovations are taking place in Bodine Hall. For three weeks now, a painter from Buildings and Ground, has been removing the rust from the stalls of the shower rooms and has been painting them over.It would be fair to say that Bodine Hall is in need of renovation. Last summer, the University promised to engage in a thorough cleaning and renovation of Bodine Hall, however, the boiler was only renovated. This semester, the situation in the shower rooms as in the past was not good; rust was accumulating on the metal portion, the paint was chipping off and soap scum was patching the walls. The ameliorations were more than welcome. They started on the eighth floor and have made it down to the third floor so far.
Lloyd Afflick, the painter for Buildings and Grounds, who has been with the University for 24 years is renovating the showers of Bodine Hall. He said that it takes him approximately 2.5 days to complete the shower room. Mr. Afflick explained why it takes 2.5 days, “I take down all of the equipment and sand all of the surfaces. Then sweep and get them ready to apply the paint.” He mentioned to The Scribe it was roughly a month ago when he was told about renovating the shower rooms. When asked about how long he believed that the shower rooms will have to be redone again he said, “As long as they use the right cleaning agents it should with proper maintanence last for approximately 4 years, if not longer.” In addition he said, “students should try not to throw things up on the and place the benches half way from the wall. Also they should take out all personal belongings to make it easier for the housekeeping staff to do a good job.”
Margarita Ortez, part of the housekeeping staff for 21 years, has done many other buildings in the past, including Shine Hall currently does all of the women’s floors in Bodine Hall. Mrs. Ortez explained, “It is not that bad to maintain clean showers here because I do them in the afternoon, after everyone has taken a shower. Also it takes a couple of hours to do a very good job.” When asked about what students can do to keep the showers clean she said, “keep the floor clean and to keep the shower curtain inside.”
Robert “Bobby” Kasparek, also part of the housekeeping staff that works in Bodine Hall, has been part of the University for 5 years. Mr. Kasparek explained, “I do many things here but my main thing is to do all of the floors including the basement, the laundry room, sweeping the stairwell, shower room on the first floor, and vacuuming the men’s floors.” When asked whether it is hard with so many students here in Bodine to maintain clean showers he said, “not now because the showers are painted, they are cleaner and cleaner looking.” He also mentioned that shower rods would help to continue keeping the showers clean. He explained about how often he works to keep the showers clean “everyday to check them to make sure that there is nothing on the floor but usually twice a week.” When asked about the most disgusting shower moment he said, “one time we had somebody sh*t on the fourth floor in one of the bathtubs and we had to clean it up and another time someone was pissing on the second floor and it was not an accident that it was in one of the shower rooms everyday.” Finally, when asked what can students do to help keep the showers clean he said, “as long as they don’t throw food or garbage around and just wash the suds down after their shower, it only takes 30 seconds to do, it would help.”
The small discomfort resulting from these renovations is that, while the shower room on your floor is being redone, you have to go either two floors down or up to take a shower. An amusing incident took place during the renovation on the sixth floor; a misleading sign was posted on the shower room doors, indicating the boys of the floor should take their shower on the fifth floor, which is for girls only. Fortunately, no major event resulted from this ambiguity.
In general, Bodine Hall residents are happy about the new looks of the showers. It tells them that the school is concerned with their comfort and is working to improve the facilities. Nevertheless, some students felt that not enough work was done. They would like to have other “things” fixed, such as the bathtubs and would like to see new shower curtains. Some students suggested a radical change, involving the change over of the stalls into tiles.
In conclusion, the renovations in Bodine Hall were necessary and definitely improved the accommodation for students. However, residents hope more work will be done; they particularly would like to have closets changed, and have a new heating system installed that could be better regulated. Furthermore, now that the shower rooms have been completed so any resident would be proud of them except for the ever present gnats that would be gone if bleach were used to disinfect the floors and the bathrooms instead of what the housekeeping staff is currently using. The use of bleach is especially important now that the rooms are redone and also important for women. Bleach may be a irritant but everyone uses bleach from washing clothes to having the chlorine in it keep the water from getting contaminated with too many colonies of bacteria so why doesn’t UB?