Dorm managers respond to tenants’ complaints
By Sarah Baker
Collegiate Housing International dorms for Peninsula College opened in Aug. of last year and now host more than 90 tenants.
Lately, tenants have harbored unrest for various aspects of dorm life, particularly when it comes to noise complaints and how dorm management handles them.
PC student Keita Tabuchi said, “I don’t care about noise in the daytime but not after midnight.” Tabuchi explains that he can hear tenants kicking a ball around and playing loud music most nights.
“I just think they don’t care,” Chelsea Sanders, another PC student, said. “I don’t necessarily think the managers are bad at what they do. They’re just good at moving at their own pace.”
Dorm managers are aware of the discontent some tenants may have with the way they conduct their work. “Some tenants may take their frustration out on us, but that’s okay. It’s our job to alleviate some of that anger and help them out,” Supervising Manager Curtis Brackett explained.
“It’s a 24/7 job, tenants will always need help,” Manager Isaac Smith said.
Students typically attempt to communicate with managers through a dorm-wide group chat with 92 or more members. This includes anything from mechanical problems like broken dishwashers to questions about dorm activities.
“Something tenants don’t realize is that they can call me,” said Brackett, “I think I’ve only gotten four phone calls in the eight months I’ve worked here.” Brackett, Smith and Assistant Manager Olivia Williams have trouble keeping up with the group chat due to the number of students who contribute. The group chat isn’t strictly meant for communicating with managers and also hosts casual conversations between students. This is why managers preferred to be contacted via phone call.
“I muted the chat because otherwise, it keeps me awake at night,” said Sanders, “but then I can miss important information about stuff like room inspections.”
Tenants also complain of complications with mail.
“I had a package delivered by the post office, it came from home. But no one received it so it was returned all the way to Japan and I had no idea,” said Tabuchi, who is an international student.
Dorm managers have specific office hours, and if packages are delivered when they are unavailable, the post office tries to hold them until they get picked up by the recipients. In order to resolve this issue, CHI has installed mailboxes for different pods, but larger parcels have no concrete system yet implemented to ensure tenants receive them.
Peninsula College has a history of conflicts at its dorms. In 2002, a male tenant was assaulted by two other male students. Campus Safety Operations Manager Marty Martinez had a restraining order against one of the perpetrators at the time, due to a previous minor assault.
Shortly after this occurred, the dorms were shut down because of other subsequent matters, according to previous Buccaneer articles; When new tenants moved into a room the fall following assault, there was blood on the ceiling. They were given a biohazard tarp to cover it up, but ended up moving to a different room.
A “zero-tolerance” policy took place the same quarter, as a way to prevent more violence and drug and alcohol use. This lead to five students receiving explulsions from the dorms, one for sexual harassment.
The Supervising Manager at the time, as well as other Resident Advisors quit after the assault, no longer comfortable living there.
Slowly, the rate of residency dropped until the dorms were eventually closed.
CHI are the first dorms to open since then. They are a contracted vendor separate from the college. No assaults have been reported since August 2018 when they opened, nor have the managers heard of anything like that taking place. “We have a pretty efficient system if something like that happens,” said Brackett. While PC Campus Security is not affiliated with the dorms, “emergency security” can respond to conflicts within three minutes, according to Brackett.
As a last reminder to tenants, Brackett, Smith and Williams encourage students to contact them through the office phone number if they have any urgent comments or questions. They alsosuggest tenants read their lease thoroughly in its entirety and fill out a request form for complaints, whether they be about managers, noise complaints, packages or anything else.
Tenants hope to see issues like mail sorted out in the near future, and for other students to take quiet hours more seriously.
To contact dorm management, call:
(415) 662-0750
Or email:
manager@chiportangeles.com
curtis@chiportangeles.com
isaac@chiportangeles.com
