For the past four weeks, my suite has been scrambling between completing homework assignments, attending classes, and dealing with our moldy suite… CW: Mold

“oh god

our couch is moldy”

At 9:55 am on August 29, 2025, my roommate texted the worst information I could hear prior to moving in. My roommates, being the first to arrive, entered our East Campus suite with open hearts and eager minds to find a horrendously moldy couch and ceiling.

Horrified by the images, I immediately responded with the link to request a service request. Soon after, my suitemates found mold on the ceiling. They completed the service request, and the next day, I called facilities.

Everything moved very quickly initially. On August 30(ish), facilities took the couch. They initially said it could be cleaned, but when they saw it in person, they were horrified. They stated it would most likely be replaced.

I blame them for the false hope.

On September 1, we learned of the horror stories from the previous year’s tenants. Mold sickness ran their suite (though they apparently did not try to do facilities requests). Oh, how we wish we were warned.

On September 5, they painted over the mold on our ceiling. I still don’t know if that is an actual fix, but it hasn’t come back so far.

On September 11, our couch came back.

The same, moldy couch.

Soon after, another request was put in for the couch. Mold spots were still apparent, and yet another facilities request was made.

It is important to interject that many such calls were made to Columbia Housing at this time. So, they definitely know that this is an issue for us. In fact, when one suitemate called, Columbia Housing immediately identified our suite.

Housing’s solution to this incident was to send over cleaners on September 16 and air out our moldy couch.

But we still saw spots. So, we called again.

This time, we asserted that cleaning did not happen if we could still see mold. They responded that facilities had videos of this cleaning occurring. They did not send those videos.

On September 22, after many more calls, Housing came to assess the couch. Apparently, you couldn’t see the mold in the photos we were sending. After pointing out the many spots of mold, the worker said, “Oh yeah, I see the mold. I’m just the middle guy who comes to verify it, and then housing will take the next steps. But I’m not sure what those are.”

Nice! Finally, we have a chance.

Soon, we received this email stating they will check our couch for mold! Hurray!

Yet, it is October 3, and the mold status has not been confirmed directly to us by Housing. Nor did any of us see how this mold testing went (no one was home when they did it). Did they test the interior? The couch cushions themselves, which are prone to mold? I highly doubt it.

We sent another email, enquiring about this status, to no avail.

Will we be stuck with this, at the very least, mold-stained couch forever?

How many mold incidents have taken place? Is this an elaborate play to gaslight us? Are we all becoming mold-crazed now?

After a month, we are all exhausted. It’d be one thing if we wanted a new couch because we just wanted a new couch, but this is an actual case of mold. Also, we don’t even need a brand new one! Grab one from another suite and switch it! We’d be way happier with this out. I’ve seen Columbia Housing replace a fridge for missing a rack, and we can’t get a replacement for a couch? I haven’t even addressed the cost of Columbia Housing, either. What are we paying for if we are left with a couch such as this?

(Also, as a very important note, this article is not intended to criticize individual Columbia Housing staff members. Our frustration lies with the broader administrative processes and delays that have impacted our quality of life.)

How I wished the East Campus suite of our dreams were here. Our decoration plans are gone, our dreams slashed, a microwave cart lacking, and the moldy couch ever still present.

I must leave you, dear readers, with one last question. Would you sit on that moldy couch?