Students can get pretty gross, sure, but should the following set of students be expected to clean up after them?

Maintaining a clean dorm space is a responsibility every student shares, but sometimes there are hidden issues that aren’t immediately obvious. Recently, my suitemate and I decided to clean our kitchen, expecting it to be just a routine task. The kitchen had been kept relatively tidy by my suitemates, who regularly cleaned the general areas like the sink and the stovetop and mopped the floors. However, when thinking of all those TikToks about deep cleaning dorm rooms, I decided to take a closer look at behind our appliances. What I found was shocking and revealing of a deeper problem that has gone unrecognized—Columbia isn’t clean.

As outlined by Columbia Housing, students are responsible for cleaning their bedrooms, common areas, and private bathrooms within suites, such as the one I currently live in. Although facilities do clean the bathrooms and, if applicable, kitchens of corridor-style buildings, it is a given a student should be cleaning their own spaces in suites. 

My suitemates and I sure have. By delegating cleaning tasks such as the bathroom, the hallway floors, and the kitchen area, we have kept our suite clean—or so we thought. It wasn’t until it was my turn to clean the kitchen that I moved the appliances out from their areas and revealed hidden grime stuck to the floor, walls, and appliances. 

By moving the oven, my suitemate and I found a pot lid that no one owned, remnants of tomato sauce that looked like it had been there for a long time—long enough to suggest it had been overlooked by many residents before us—and bundles of dust globs from years of living in the space. The sauce had dried into the crevices, the sides of the counter were peeling, and, ultimately, it was clear that this space hadn’t seen a cleaning since at least before my group moved in. Similarly, when moving the fridge, we encountered thick layers of dust on the floor and the back of the fridge, a butter knife that none of us owned, a blue tote bag that also none of us owned, and strange substances stuck onto the ground. These items told a story of neglect in hard-to-reach spaces, adding to our realization that the kitchen required far more than just surface cleaning.

So, my suitemate and I spent hours cleaning the space. We utilized the standard cleaning supplies (gloves, disinfectant spray, rags, buckets), but that was ultimately insufficient for the job. We needed a mop, a putty knife to remove the gunk, and a scrubber to also get into the full grime of the baseboards and floors. When we first moved in, the bathroom had a myriad of problems. The grout was stained and dirty, hard water stains surrounded the toilet and the shower, toilet paper was stuck to the ground, and the sink had an unidentified blue object stuck in it. Also, the toilet was running constantly, but that was an easy fix. These cleaning concerns, though, once we moved in, became our responsibility. No matter how gross that grout was, or how weird that toilet paper was, we the students needed to go out and buy specialty tools and supplies to clean it. There are methods to request more cleaning supplies, but the supplies given aren’t sufficient to fully deal with what students tend to need. 

Further, the radiators display a deeper problem as well. For students without radiator covers, dust and paint chips scatter on the ground and within the radiator itself. This dust buildup can reduce the radiator’s efficiency and impact air quality, making living conditions less healthy. Not only that, but the paint in some rooms is also actively peeling—even the drywall is flaking off. These may seem like minor issues, but they add up, and unfortunately, students are left to deal with them, often paying out of pocket for additional cleaning supplies.

While Columbia’s Facilities staff do an excellent job maintaining common areas, they shouldn’t be expected to handle all deep cleaning tasks in student dorms each semester. My experience cleaning my suite was just one example of a broader issue across Columbia’s housing. Many of my friends have encountered similar problems, discovering dirt, dust, and debris left behind by previous residents. It’s not uncommon for just one Facilities staff member to be assigned to clean a space. Meanwhile, professional cleaning services like NYC Cleaning Wizards, which charge about $456 to deep clean a suite similar in size to mine (5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,000-1,499 sq. ft.), send multiple people for the job. Expecting a single staff member to clean up after multiple rounds of students is unfair and insufficient.

Columbia’s current cleaning policies focus on basic upkeep, but they do not account for the more intensive deep cleaning that is often required between residents. Students, who are already balancing heavy academic workloads and other responsibilities, cannot and should not be tasked with deep cleaning their dorms upon moving in every year. Given that the average cost of student housing at Columbia is about $1,358 per month (or $12,222 annually), the University should ensure that students are provided clean and healthy spaces.

Cleaning via Bwarchives