As the new school year began, students were welcomed with fresh faces and extensive syllabi, while other students were welcomed by fleas in their housing.
While getting settled into their South Hall apartments, a few PLU students had begun noticing flea bites and decided to report their concerns to Campus Life – a department at PLU that strives to improve student experiences on campus and to allow students to “Love Where You Live.”
“I woke up one morning the first week after moving into South with a bug bite. The following mornings, I woke up with more and more bites until my torso and legs looked like they were polka-dotted,” shared Carlie Svarthumle, a second-year kinesiology student who has been affected by the fleas in South Hall. “We knew something was off and decided to email Campus Life.”
After receiving reports of fleas in South Hall, Campus Life began taking action to eliminate the bugs.
“Any apartment that reported fleas was inspected and confirmed and was treated by the pest management company,” explained Rebecca Rumpza, director for Campus Life Operations. The treatment itself takes a few hours to complete, while the aftercare includes vacuuming daily for a week to fully eliminate the bugs and eggs. Rumpza stated that the treatments were successful and that the students were notified about the aftercare instructions.
However, students such as Svarthumle didn’t have that experience with Campus Life and were disappointed with how the situation was handled on their end.
“They treated [our apartment] once and did not give us the proper aftercare instructions. Two to three weeks later, the fleas were back,” Svarthumle stated. “They could have communicated a lot better with the students and offered more support and follow-up regarding the issue. Inspections of our apartment were very brief and did not seem intentional.”
Due to the ongoing flea infestation in Svarthumle’s apartment, she experienced lots of unnecessary stress at the beginning of the new semester. She spent hours doing laundry every day and searching for solutions on her own, feeling that Campus Life showed little urgency in resolving the problem.
“The amount of stress that living with fleas caused me made it hard to go about my daily life,” Svarthumle said.
In response to these concerns, Rumpza stated, “Campus Life communicates with students whenever scheduled work is happening in a residence hall. Students were notified of treatment times, protocols, and next steps.” However, Svarthumle and her roommate claimed they never got notified when the apartment was getting treated or what to do post-treatment, which caused the fleas to return.
After completing all of the treatments, Campus Life states that they have not received any new reports of fleas in South Hall. In total, ten apartments were treated for the flea infestation.
“Trying to live a normal life while coming home to a flea infestation every night was terrible,” admitted Svarthumle. “I hope Campus Life will take a serious approach to this issue and make efforts to prevent more students from starting their year in such a horrible way.”
