Eddie Estes knows first hand the problems faced by students living in Sampson Hall. The busted water pipes, the leaking ceilings, the limited shower space. The problems will end with the expected renovations this summer.
Still, Estes remembers rushing home to find all his belongings under water.
“Everything was floating in water,” said Estes, a 19-year-old freshman industrial engineering student from Miami.
He doesn’t think renovations are enough for Sampson.
‘They should knock it down,” he said
Other residents echo Estes’ sentiments.
“Sampson will collapse at any moment,” said Anthony Luckey, 19, a freshman secondary education student from Ocala. “My carpet is wet from a pipe that busted the other day.”
John Little said Sampson needs all new plumbing and new ceiling tile.
He said that in one instance the third and fourth floor residents were all fined $25 for ripped ceilings – a problem he said existed due to the age of the building not because of residents.
“It’s not fair to me because I didn’t do it,” said the 18-year-old freshman electronic engineering technology student from Fort Lauderdale.
George Olokun, 18, a sophomore pharmacy student from Atlanta, said Sampson, Young and parts of Gibbs Hall, need to be renovated.
Nevertheless, Olukun, the Sampson Hall resident adviser, said with the exception of the leaking ceilings, “the rooms aren’t all that bad.
As a part of Students-at-Large, a group of students that meet with the housing department once a month to discuss issues that concern campus residents, Olukun found out about the Sampson Hall renovation project. Others found out from friends who work with housing or from roommates.
Other residents like Little, simply weren’t aware, who planned to stay in Sampson next fall.
“I don’t know where I’m going to stay.”