To the Editor:
With the housing crunch on, many people are complaining about the Office of Residential Life. ORL catches the heat for everything from bad housing to a lousy roommate to over-stuffed dorms because of high admissions. But ORL rarely gets credit for what it does well.
Last Wednesday, an electrical fire broke out in Delta Gamma sorority. A bedroom was badly charred and water damage was extensive. The two women who lived in the room lost many of their possessions, and many women lost stored items in the basement due to water damage. ORL was extremely helpful and considerate in this situation.
Two ORL administrators, Woody Eckels and Bernard Haskell, were present during the fire. They entered the house with the firemen to survey the damage. Within minutes of allowing us back into the house, they had a cleanup crew on site ready to help the women remove their damaged possessions, move the furniture and save what they could. Other workers restored power to the building and reset the sprinkler system. The speed and efficiency of the operations impressed me.
In addition, ORL took a lot of helpful extra steps. One of them immediately called a Kiewit representative over to try to save the water damaged computers. Alison Keefe, Assistant Dean of Residential Life, came over to check on the housing situation.She offered the women rooms in residence halls and offered to help find temporary housing for women bothered by the smoke smell. Bernard gave us a key to another building so we could hold meetings that night.
When I arrived at the housethe next day, the room was scrubbed, some of the broken windows were replaced and all of the rugs in the house were cleaned. Woody and Bernard stopped by several times to check on our progress, to look at the damaged items in the basement and to offer general support. Workers helped us move our things in and out of the basement.
Both Woody and Bernard continued to be helpful throughout the week by guiding us in our dealings with insurance and by checking up regularly.
I am relaying this story to thank the ORL staff for their support. The office is often maligned for things that are not its fault, but the staff certainly came through when we needed them. I commend ORL for the speed in helping us clean up and for the consideration of our needs.
