Mold found Friday on a student’s clothes and in the walls of the 13th Street dormitory triggered the evacuation of 161 residents, mostly freshmen, to housing in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
A majority of students had been assigned new rooms three days after the mold was discovered on Friday, Sept. 21. As of Sept. 24, 61 students still did not know where they would be living.
Residents were moved to locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, including housing on 92nd Street and Marymount Manhattan College dorms, as well as Educational Student Housing in Brooklyn Heights.
School officials said that there is “no reason to believe the mold is a health risk” but that they will move students out of an “abundance of caution,” according to the email announcement sent Sept. 21. The email stated that “the mold is being tested.”
However, the mold has not been tested yet, according to a university spokesperson.
“We have intentionally chosen not to disturb any of the mold until the building is completely vacant,” a spokesperson for the university said.
On Sunday, the entrance to 13th Street Residence hall remained open as students and staff bustled in and out, either carrying items or discussing the need to move their belongings. A group of students remained in the lobby, huddled together with the peers that they expected to spend the year with. Some busily talked on the phone or walked with friends, or offered emotional support. Others joked about the situation. Staff and other maintenance workers helped move students’ items in cardboard boxes, rubber bins and luggage into U-Haul trucks headed for their new homes.
Eissa Attar, a first year architecture and design student, was annoyed by the situation. Attar had not been assigned new housing as of Sept. 23, and had already felt at home at 13th Street.
“Yesterday, I brought my cousin to the dorm that I love, the neighborhood that I love, and the family that I built here,” Attar said. “I came from 13 hours away [from Saudi Arabia] to here, and now I am moving again.”
Around 20 students were sent to other New School dorms, about 15 students to Educational Housing Services in Brooklyn Heights, more than 20 to Educational Housing Services in the Upper East Side, according to an email sent to 13th Street Residence Hall residents. Some were also sent to a residence hall at Marymount Manhattan College, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many.
Students have been relocated to residences based on their responses to a questionnaire that was sent to affected students Sept. 21, said a university spokesperson. All students should receive new living assignments before 5 p.m. on Sept. 27.
School officials provided unlimited monthly MetroCards to students whose temporary housing assignments came with a commute. Officials are also trying to expand meal plan options to dining options near these temporary locations, according to a website set up by the university to give updates on the relocation.
Resident Advisors will continue to serve their students in new locations, officials said. Before evacuations began, Attar discovered mold on various belongings and around his room.
“I got mold on my clothes,” Attar said. “At the beginning, I was blaming my roommates for pouring water, but then I learned it was mold.”
Asked how he felt about his sudden evacuation, Attar said simply, “Anger.”
Tom Leonard, a first-year who studies guitar at CoPA and will move to Upper East Side, was playing when he heard he would have to leave his new home. He learned of his relocation from David Truilo, his friend, who studies saxophone at CoPA.
“We were in the middle of a session when David told me that we were being evicted because of mold,” Leonard said. “We were practicing new material and had to stop, so I could call my parents.”
Leonard and Truilo said they were shocked. Truilo, who will move to the same dorm as Leonard, wished the school had given him more information sooner, but gave credit to how residence hall officials are moving students.
“I appreciate the people working in 13th [Street Residence Hall] because they’re doing a really great job,” Truilo said. “They have to move too, and I don’t think they knew before really. They’re managing the situation really well.”
Nicole Allen, a first year student who studies photography and will move to a Marymount dorm on 55th Street, found the silver lining, choosing to see the sudden upheaval as a lesson in learning to pack quickly and adapt.
“I was extremely shocked, but now I’m comfortable because I feel like it will be a good experience to be in a different part of the city,” Allen said.