West Grove Commons opened in August 2024 to house 750 first-year students. Less than two semesters later, the residents are facing mini fridge confiscations, personal appliance limitations and complications involving power outages, water leaks and lack of hot water.
In the past two months, issues affecting numerous amenities have caused students to raise complaints.
For resident Waylon Leigh Chauvin, minor issues stretch from power outages to major leaks that have displaced students.
“It’s been shut off a couple of times at night, but we get warnings ahead of time,” Chauvin said about the power outages. “Sometimes we lose the heating in our water, you only have cold showers. On the third floor there was a spill — ended up soaking into the second floor. Some rooms had to be closed and people had to be moved out of those.”
A university employee familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing employment, confirmed that the electrical outages are present at West Grove Commons.
“I can confirm that West Grove Commons has had multiple power outages ranging from just a couple rooms at a time to the entire building,” the source said. “This isn’t really exclusive to just West Grove Commons. All dormitories on campus pretty much have the same issues.”
Although West Grove Commons was built within a fairly quick design and construction schedule– 25 months, Barry Jodatian, an associate vice president who oversees capital projects, said the speed of the construction is not a contributing factor to dorm complications and that the building has passed inspection and meets all building codes.
Bobby King, SFSU’s director of communications, spoke about those issues.
“The only leak we are aware [of] is one radiator in one of the rooms was leaking due to a faulty fitting and it was replaced,” King stated in an email. “We were notified about low hot water [a] couple of weeks ago, the contractor responded immediately and discovered that system software needed to be upgraded. The issue was resolved.”
Traveling throughout the building has also been an issue for residents. Broken elevators have left students stuck inside and waiting for hours until help arrives.
Kinesiology student Omar Mendes said frequent elevator malfunctions are left unresolved for days at a time. Mendes recalls that his own floor experienced this issue.
“So they malfunction here and there,” Mendes said. “But there have been multiple times where people will try to pry them open when they’re trying to go up or down, so they’ve had to stop running them for like a couple days… It was actually on my floor. It was seven people stuck inside, and they were there for quite some time. I don’t know the time exactly, but I know it was a pretty long time.”
Beyond electrical systems, the university employee said that rodent infestations have created a rotation of temporary housing for impacted students.
“Rodents have been a big problem lately as well, with RAs usually being the ones to have to trap them,” said the source. “Residents have had to be placed in temporary housing or sleep with a friend due to rodents being in their room.”
But a problem more dear to students is the confiscation of their personal belongings. According to West Grove Commons’ packing checklist for incoming freshmen, one “low wattage” mini fridge is permitted per triple dorm room, and one main fridge and stove is shared by the entire building in the community kitchen. Prohibited appliances also include microwaves, hot plates and air fryers.
“At first, it was fine,” said resident Angelina Robles, referring to the shared kitchen. “Then people started to not clean up after themselves. And then it got to the point where you had to make an appointment.”
Lauren Luong, another resident, lives in a dorm that used to have two mini fridges. Luong said that the second mini fridge was secretly covered by an RA but eventually found by housing staff.
“Because me and my roommate share a fridge, my other roommate had to hide her fridge,” Luong said. “Some people I know hide their fridge under a desk or put a blanket over it. But my roommate moved her fridge to the RA’s room but when housing came over… he said he was holding onto it for someone and because of that, the fridge got confiscated.”
According to the university employee familiar with the situation, the mini fridge and other appliance confiscations have become a source of irritation as students don’t know when they will get their belongings returned. The employee did not know the number of confirmations, but said it happened multiple times. They also said other cooking appliances were confiscated and students wouldn’t be able to have them back until the end of the semester.
However, Jeny Patino, an associate vice president who oversees housing, said students should have been aware of permitted and non-permitted appliances when given the checklist before the academic year began.
“There have been no changes to the agreements,” said Patino. “Rather, we have provided further clarity on specific items given what we were seeing being brought into the communities.”
Despite experiencing an electrical issue, resident Christopher Lee Showler enjoys the new facilities that West Grove Commons offers.
“I mean brand new dorm rooms, everything is beyond nice,” Showler said. “Especially when you’re just expecting like a normal dorm, everything’s brand new, so it’s really nice.”
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Barry Jodatian’s name.
