Nearly a year after Sodexo expanded into housing, students continue to voice their concerns regarding the lack of improvements once promised to them and their student life.
Broken elevators, wrecked laundry rooms and nonexistent hot water are among some of the most cited concerns in the residence halls.
“It’s just small inconveniences that pile up and make life more- not miserable- but definitely less fun,” said Jeremy Padilla.
Padilla, a resident of Juniper Hall, is one of the many students who responded to a survey conducted by The Round Up to gauge the varying grievances of those living in the residence halls.
The survey yielded problems across all residence halls, pointing out widespread issues in student housing. Students residing in Juniper Hall have been the most vocal about their discontent, often using handmade posters to point out Sodexo’s ineffectiveness at responding to their broken laundry rooms.
“This building makes over 1.5 million dollars, and somehow, we still only have three functional washers,” one of the signs reads.
These concerns are not only experienced by hundreds of students living in the first-year residence halls, as they also extend to the other 23% of all students who reside on NMSU’s campus. Using average costs provided by university websites, the university raises over $117 million just from housing costs, not to mention other profits like paying for laundry.
In addition to laundry concerns, students also face difficulties with accessing proper elevators. In fact, students in Garcia Hall have been without an elevator since the start of the 2023 Fall semester.
“The elevators have been broken since move-in day, and anytime I’m bringing heavy items up the stairs I run the risk of dropping them or slipping on the stairs when it’s raining,” said Garcia Hall resident Juaquin Mckenna.
While the residence hall still complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the lack of an elevator still creates inconveniences for residents. It is especially concerning when a similar incident occurred on Jan. 29 in Pinon Hall, but the elevator was fixed within a week.
These concerns echo previous outcry against Sodexo’s acquisition of housing, which begs the question of whether the company is living up to their promises. Students continue to pay for facilities that are less maintained than promised while problems continue to grow.
NMSU Housing & Residential Life representatives were unavailable for an interview at the time of writing.
Resident Aggie • Mar 5, 2024 at 12:49 PM
An important thing this article fails to mention is that Sodexo does NOT maintain the washers and dryers. A third-party vendor is responsible for the machines and this contract has been in place before Sodexo started to manage housing. Because of this, it is extremely difficult to get a refund for a broken machine.
NMSU Student • Mar 5, 2024 at 7:05 PM
So then it sounds like Sodexo should be responsible for getting in contact with the third party vendor and live up to their promises.
JN • Feb 25, 2024 at 6:09 PM
This is a really good article. Not sure why NMSU is allowing this to happen. The lack of attention NMSU is paying to the contractual promises of Sudexo is appalling. First year kids are required to live on campus and should not be having to live under these conditions. They are paying equal share to live on campus. NMSU IS NOT living up to their commitments to students and parents that the kids will have a good quality of life at NMSU. I graduated from NMSU and lived on campus three years and didn’t have to live this way. It’s not right. NMSU is letting their students down.