Ian Scholes was excited to finally move into his WashU housing for his first year of college, after a long summer of dealing with mold in his house. But when he stepped into his suite in Dauten, Scholes and his family immediately recognized the smell of mildew and saw signs of mold.     

“The minute I moved in, my mom and dad, they said, ‘Oh yeah, there’s mold in this grate,’ and then we looked in the shower, and there was mold in the shower,” he said. 

Scholes, who is currently a sophomore, was one of many students who spoke to Student Life about their experience living with mold in their WashU dorm. Before Scholes came to WashU, his family had dealt with health issues related to the mold in their home. Scholes experienced nosebleeds and headaches, and his brother developed a debilitating health condition.

“My sister and I, we both got bloody noses. It depends … on the person in my family,” Scholes said. “My brother [was] completely debilitated. One of my sisters, she fell asleep constantly because of it.”

Mold consultant Ian St. John — founder and president of St. John Environmental Consulting, a company that performs mold, asbestos, and lead testing — emphasized that living with mold varies from person to person, and that some people experience no negative effects.  

“Everybody’s different when it comes to the health effects [of mold],” St. John said. “It’s like allergies; some people have them and some don’t.”  

After living in his suite in Dauten for a few months, Scholes began to experience the same symptoms, like headaches and nosebleeds, that he had while living at home. He contacted his Residential College Director (RCD), who offered Scholes another room. But that room also smelled like mildew to him.  

“The only other room [available] was also in a traditional [dorm], and it was just as bad, so I didn’t end up changing, because that would have cost me some money,” Scholes said.

Residential Life has not responded to multiple requests for comment or interview. Additionally, when asked for comment, multiple current and former Residential Advisors (RAs) said that they had been instructed by their RCDs to not speak or provide statements to Student Life about anything related to their job as RAs.

After publication of this article, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Sheryl Mauricio, explained in an email to Student Life that WashU has previously developed a brochure for students explaining how to mitigate mold in their dorms.

“It’s important to note that molds are part of the natural environment, especially in humid environments like we have in Missouri, there is no practical way to eliminate all mold and mold spores indoors,” she wrote. “We always want to know if students have any concerns about housing. They should contact their RCD or submit a maintenance request if they need assistance.”

Scholes continued to live in Dauten, and requested that maintenance remove the mold from his room. 

“They replaced the HVAC system in my room, specifically — not the whole suite, but my room,” Scholes said. “I don’t think the mold in the shower or the grate was ever cleaned up.” 

Maintenance told Scholes that they performed an air test after replacing the HVAC system and that the room was cleared of mold by the air test. Scholes believed that mold was still present in the ducts and requested that ResLife perform an Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) dust test or an equivalent test. 

The ERMI dust test was developed by the EPA to help researchers categorize the types of mold present in a home and assess their risk. Scholes’ parents previously performed the same test on their house, which showed high levels of mold. Although, according to the EPA, they do not recommend using the ERMI test for routine mold testing of a property. 

He was told by ResLife that the room was safe to live in because of the air-test results and that ResLife would not do another type of test. Scholes asked his RCD what company or brand the air test was from, and his RCD did not know. Scholes says they did not find out for him.  

Because the federal government does not have any regulations for mold, it is important that air test samples are sent to legitimate testing companies that are independent from the organization that collected the sample. 

According to St. John, air tests are the most accurate type of test because they collect air samples on the same day from both inside and outside of the building and compare the number of spores in the samples. 

“There are no standards for mold [testing]. So the government does not mandate mold, because mold is naturally occurring, and it’s constantly changing,” St. John said. “[Mold tests] are as accurate as the person reading them … Air testing is the most accurate, because you have a baseline.”

Scholes said that after the HVAC was replaced, the mildew smell was better and that he no longer experienced nosebleeds and headaches. However, he continued to worry that the issue was not resolved internally and that the mold would return. 

This is because he also observed, at the beginning of the year, a circle of black-colored mold on a water-damaged ceiling tile in a basement room in Dauten — the only study room in the building. 

“They replaced that tile [that had] the water damage and mold with another one, but within a week, it was back, and so they just blocked off the study room from then on out,” Scholes said. “I think there’s just a bunch of internal infrastructure problems.” 

The study room in Dauten has been closed since September of last year and continues to be closed as of the date of publication of this article. 

Mold and water damage on a ceiling tile in Dauten’s basement study room (Courtesy of Ian Scholes).

Similarly, shortly after moving into her room on the third floor of Rutledge last year, current sophomore Ella Rodriguez visited the hallway connecting all of the fourth-floor suites, and she observed black-colored mold on the walls and pipes of the hallway.  

The same day, Rodriguez’s RAs sent a Microsoft Teams message to all Rutledge residents saying that the emergency maintenance team was handling the “black mold.” The RAs told the students to keep their suite doors and the stairwell doors closed because that part of the building was not air-conditioned, and keeping them closed would help with the mold removal.

St. John explained that mold can come in all shapes and colors and that when people see mold that is black in color, they often believe that it is black mold, officially known as “stachybotrys,” one of the most dangerous types of mold. Unless swab or tape lift testing is performed on the mold, it is not possible to say if it is black mold or another type of mold.    

“They wouldn’t know [what kind of mold is present] unless they did either a swab or a tape lift. So [with a] swab or a tape lift, you’re actually rubbing it on that surface of that material. And those go to a lab, and then they’re analyzed,” St. John said. “I get a lot of people that say, ‘Oh, I see black mold,’ but usually, it’s not black mold.”

Rodriguez said that her RAs messaged the Rutledge residents to say that if they have further issues with mold, they should fill out a maintenance request form to get it resolved.   

Mold in the hallway connecting the suites on the fourth floor of Rutledge dorm (Courtesy of Ella Rodriguez).

 This year, first-year Grace Philip encountered mold on her air conditioner’s metal grate in Lee on the morning of Sept. 22. She reported the issue to Residential Life, and maintenance promptly cleaned and replaced parts of the AC unit.

“I haven’t had any more issues since then. I had them come in, they cleaned everything out, and I haven’t noticed anything, at least on the outside,” she said. “I know that there have been some other people that I’ve heard who also had this issue in the same dorm.” 

Philip was experiencing respiratory symptoms — including a cold and asthma attacks around the time she discovered the mold — but she could not definitively link her worsening symptoms to the mold.

Last year, Scholes had a similar experience with illness before his HVAC was replaced by Residential Life, but it was also difficult to definitively link his symptoms to the mold.

“I had a cold for like, four months straight,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad, but it’s like, ‘Why do I always have a cold?’”  

Mold around the AC vent in Lee dorm (Courtesy of Grace Philip).

Just last month, sophomore Kate Westfall — who is living in Mudd, a modern dorm — reported “black and spotty” mold under and around the sealant in her shower.

“I filed a maintenance report, then they emailed me back, and they’re like, ‘We don’t do mold, that’s housekeeping,’” Westfall said. “So then I filed a housekeeping report, and they were like, ‘It’s under the sealant, so we can’t get to it. We’ll tell maintenance.’ But then maintenance never came.” 

After filing a third report regarding her situation, maintenance came and disinfected her shower and put up new caulking. 

“There is still stuff in our shower. And I don’t know if that’s just heavy dirt, or what. But there’s something that is not quite clean,” Westfall said.

A few dorms down in Myers, first-year Emma Medvedsek found a water leak in her living room’s floor behind the couch earlier this semester.

“I put in a maintenance request immediately, because I know if we leave that leak going, there was going to be a mold issue. [But] they came in, and they didn’t fix the leak. They just put an industrial air-blower on the floor,” she said.

The leaking returned a few days later after maintenance removed the fan. Medvedsek put in another request, and maintenance came 3-4 days later. In the time maintenance took to revisit the issue, mold had already begun to grow.

“In that time, I started to see molds growing, a layer of white molds growing on the floor … It was just a few splotches here and there. It was kind of contained within an area,” Medvedsek said.

As mold continues to be problematic for students — especially for those in traditional dorms on the South 40 — some have begun to call on ResLife to more thoroughly address the mold issues in these spaces. 

Although Medvedsek is aware that maintenance is dealing with thousands of students and has various living spaces to address, “All students should be allowed to live in a mold-free space.”  

Editor’s note: Kate Westfall is a Design Editor and Contributing Writer for Student Life and was not involved in the writing, reporting, or editing of this story.

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 12pm on Nov. 18th to include the perspective of Sheryl Mauricio