Bedbugs Don’t Wait For Midterms Now, Do They?

In other bedbug news, first-year Columbia students are being evacuated from their dorms in order to battle another bedbug infestation:

Five first-years have discovered that they might not be the only residents living in their John Jay singles.

Yaw Awiah, CC ’09, reported bedbugs in his room on the 13th floor to Housing and Dining Services last Friday morning, and was asked to leave the building later that day. By Monday, at the start of one of the most stressful weeks of the semester, Housing asked Shira Burton, CC ’09, Nikhil Gupta, SEAS ’09, Andrew Tillett-Saks, CC ’09, and Ian Vo, SEAS ’09, to evacuate their rooms on the 12th through 14th floors by Wednesday night. Their temporary move to Hartley Hall is a precautionary measure to prevent the further spread of a bedbug infestation discovered on the building’s 13th floor.

In order to evacuate, students must clean all bedding and clothing and completely empty their rooms in order for exterminators to fumigate thoroughly. Housing gave each student $25 in Flex dollars to pay for laundry fees.

“We’re trying to be very aggressive about it,” said Director of Housing Services Herman Matte. “We take it as a huge urgency. It’s inconvenient to the students, but we want to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.”

But in a surprise move, the students actually seem less concerned about the infestation than they are about their midterm exams:

Students, however, have other priorities during midterms week.

“It seems like Housing and Dining couldn’t be any more disconnected from the academic branch of the school,” Burton said. “Would it really make such a big difference if we had to be moved out by Saturday morning? Couldn’t they fumigate over spring break, when, even if people are staying at Columbia, they won’t have academic schedules to be disrupted?”