Dorm Room Patches Save Summer Cash

Monica Guzman, Staff Reporter

Monica_Guzman@csumb.edu

May 8, 2008

With only a few weeks of school

left, many CSU Monterey Bay

(CSUMB) students are stressing

out about finals and the worry of

moving out for summer.

While taking down decorations

and re-arranging furniture, many

discover damages such as stains on

the carpet or holes in the walls in

their rooms which may result in

damage done to their wallets.

“The room has to be the way

you found it,” said Rachelle Renoso,

North Quad Residential Housing

Building 303 second floor Residential

Advisor (RA). According to Renoso

this means that it has to be clean and

free of any new damages.

A few things that Renoso

suggested to make sure of before

the move out is that there are no

visible or large holes and absolutely

no nails. Students should also make

sure to vacuum and check all their

drawers before checking out.

According to Renoso, the person

who makes the decision as to

whether the resident has to pay or

not is the Community Director.

“During check out the RA goes

over the room with the resident

to make sure that the room is left

the way it was before the residents

moved in. The RA then goes in a

second time with the community

director to make sure the room is

up to standards,” said Renoso.

Students may wonder if they can

fix damages themselves to avoid

being charged. “If a person patches

up a hole on their own there should

not be a problem as long as there

isn’t [spackling paste] everywhere,”

Renoso stated.

Integrated Studies Special Major

senior, Hillary Williamson knows

of a secret method to patch up

walls. “I know a lot of people who

have used toothpaste and wall tack

to cover holes,” said Willamson.

Ricky Perez, Psychology junior,

had two damages in his room one

year and was only charged for one

of them. He had a hole in his wall

and a stain on his carpet. The hole

was from slamming the door open

making the door handle hit the

wall. “We didn’t do anything about

this and were charged $25 each,

totaling to $125,” said Perez.

As for the stain on the carpet,

Perez and his roommates just

covered the stain with a piece of

furniture and were never charged.

Another quick fix Perez used

to avoid being charged was the

toothpaste method to cover holes

from nails in the wall.

One student who tried to fix

some damage done to his room in

the suites last year is Social and

Behavioral Sciences senior, Jason

Weddell. “A hole was punched into

one of the common room walls

measuring about three inches in

diameter”, said Weddell.

In order to patch up the hole,

Weddell put wire mesh over

the damaged area and covered it

with spackling paste.Weddell was

actually charged $50 which could

have been avoided if he would have

painted over the patch.

“I didn’t have the time to go out

and find matching paint so I left it,

but I actually recently found out

that you can go to Orchard Supply

and Hardware with a sample of the

wall color and get paint matched to

it,” said Weddell.

According to Weddell, fresh

stains can sometimes be taken out

with hot water and soap. One

product that Weddell suggested

is Resolve Carpet Cleaner. This

product can be found at Target,

costing about $5 per can and is said