Hide your George Foreman grills and take down your Christmas lights, because every residential room on campus will be inspected for housing violations over the next several weeks, Evanston officials say.
Evanston inspectors will check whole buildings, not just the residents’ rooms. Property Standards Inspector Jerry Richards said he will check walls, ceilings, plumbing and electricity to ensure everything is up to code.
“With rooming house inspections there are some additional things that come into play,” Richards said. “It’s a fairly comprehensive inspection.”
Richards said he will be going into each room, but will not disturb anyone’s personal property.
“I would ask permission to unplug an outlet, or I would pull back a curtain to check if a window is cracked or broken,” Richards said. “But I don’t open drawers or closets or invade someone’s privacy. I just want to make sure that everyone is living in a safe environment.”
Jeff Murphy, Evanston property standards supervising inspector, said he generally requests that landlords give at least 24 hours notice before the inspections. Students should receive notification from the Office of Residential Life officials before their building gets inspected.
“We just want to make sure that all the codes that apply to rooming houses are in effect,” Murphy said. “We want to ensure (that) tenants and students are given prior notice.”
Just after Winter Break, Residential Life area coordinator Kristina Richards sent an e-mail to the Shepard Residential College listserv about the start of the inspections. She wrote that during break, an Evanston building inspector went through Allison Hall with a representative from University Housing to check rooms for any violations.
“We have a new building inspector,” she wrote. “He will be going through every single room within a residence hall on this campus.”
She added that the inspectors will be looking for violations in dorm rooms, lounges, trunk rooms, closets, suites and more.
“Basically anything that has a door and leads to something,” she wrote. “For any violations found in the residence rooms, that resident will receive a citation from the city of Evanston.”
Joe Simonetti, associate director of housing and food administration, could not be reached for comment.
Stan Janusz, assistant director of community development for Evanston, confirmed that every year inspectors check every residential room on campus.
“They regularly go into students’ rooms,” Janusz said. “The inspections comprise all areas of the building.”
He said there is nothing unusual or noteworthy about this year’s inspections.
Some students said they did not think the inspections would be as thorough as indicated.
“I am really doubtful,” said Sarah Novis, a community assistant in Foster-Walker Complex. “I think it’s completely unrealistic that they are going to go into each and every room on campus and check it so thoroughly for all those violations.”
Novis, a Weinberg senior, said she did not remember receiving notification before inspections in the past, but she changed her room around a little after getting a notice via e-mail on the Plex listserv.
“I took posters off the backs of doors and redid some extension cords,” she said. “Better to be safe than sorry.”
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