By
Mindy Jones
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Supervisor has been hired to handle maintenance requests
UA Residence Life and Eastern Way, Sky View Apartments' management company, are working together to improve living conditions at the residence hall.
After many residents filed complaints regarding unresolved maintenance issues at the complex, 1050 E. Eighth St., the two parties took measurements to fix the problems.
Jim Van Arsdel, director of Residence Life, wrote a letter to all Sky View residents addressing a variety of concerns and proposed changes to be implemented in the following weeks.
In response to students' complaints about dirty carpets, the Residence Life custodial staff offered complimentary carpet cleaning to all Sky View residents who signed up by Sept. 20, Van Arsdel said.
"We have had approximately 45 to 60 people take advantage of this (carpet cleaning) service," Van Arsdel said. "Appointments are still being organized, and the work should begin later this week."
Other problems identified by Residence Life and Eastern Way included a lack of supervision of the complex.
Steve Jaffe, Eastern Way's president, has temporarily placed a supervisor in the building who is an employee of his company.
"The person we put in the office is very familiar with maintenance issues," said Jaffe. "This should eliminate the problems we were having with incorrect work orders."
The supervisor will be reviewing orders from the students and writing them according to Eastern Way guidelines.
Although the supervisor will remain in the building as long as Eastern Way feels necessary, Jaffe does not think the problem will resume once he is removed.
Residence Life also employed a maintenance supervisor who will work on site at Sky View from Monday through Friday.
"Our supervisor will help us to ensure that all maintenance issues are resolved in a timely matter," Van Arsdel said. "We are hoping this will help to improve the conditions."
Residence Life and Eastern Way will continue to conduct meetings until things clear up with the complex, Jaffe said.
"After our meeting on Friday, we did a walk through and found that there were only three outstanding work orders," Jaffe said. "All three were new and will be addressed shortly."
Communication and relations between Eastern Way and Residence Life have improved as well, Jaffe said.
Van Arsdel said he expects to see continued progress in both of these areas as well as with Sky View itself.
"What Res Life has done is less important than what Res Life and Eastern Way have done together," Van Arsdel said.
