residence hall maintenance

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For residence hall maintenance at UF, a photo is all it takes

University of Florida officials have found they can get students to
help maintain their residence halls by giving them a tool - but it's
not a paintbrush or hammer.

Instead, as part of a three-year-old program called "In Students'
Eyes," housing administrators distribute digital cameras to
undergraduates and encourage them to shoot photos of cracked
ceiling tiles, flaking paint and other glitches they spot. Housing
administrators then work with maintenance and custodial staff to
fix the problems, posting the "before" and "after" pictures on
bulletin boards and online.

"I've been in and out of all these buildings since I started here, and
there are a lot of potential problems that I just don't see anymore,"
said Scott Nelson, a UF residence life coordinator who oversees
five residence halls with about 1,000 students. "Since students live
in the residence halls 24 hours per day, they notice a lot more than
we do."

Housing officials expanded the program this year, distributing
about 50 cameras this fall as part of the first-semester program,
which ended this month. Residence hall staff and members of the
Inter-Residence Hall Association, a University of Florida student
organization that governs residence halls, shoot photos and pass
the cameras out to students. This year, students shot about 1,200
photos in roughly three weeks allotted for picture taking, double
last year's total.

Pictures run the gamut from minor glitches to major issues.
Common shots may feature cracked windows and ceramic tiles,
overgrown shrubbery or furniture with torn upholstery. Others
spotlight bigger things, such as the need for a roof over an
outdoor mailbox center or an empty space that the student
photographer feels would make a nice spot for an outdoor terrace.
Student photographers are provided with log books to note the
locations of their photos.

Housing staff members take care of what they can immediately
and plan for larger jobs later in the year, said Norb Dunkel, UF
housing director, who came up with the concept for the program.
Housing staff post photos of repairs as quickly as possible to
show that they have responded to many of the students'
concerns, he said.

"For the minimal cost involved, and the excitement and
gratification that students feel as well as the ownership they take
in the building when seeing those things are taken care of - all of
that makes it well worth it," he said.

Dunkel said that with increased participation, the aim is to make
the program obsolete. "Our biggest goal is that we sunset the
program because we've kept up with everything and students
can't find anything to take pictures of," he said.