Mold has been one of the most persistent issues that Villanova students have dealt with, particularly in recent years. Students who live on south and main campus, which are home to some of the older dorms on campus, have been particularly adversely affected by the worsening mold. We are sympathetic that the school is facing a staffing difficulty and that it is difficult to maintain as many old buildings as we have on our campus. However, there are few things that the school should be putting above student health on campus, and it seems like more of our tuition money is going to Anthony’s Party Rentals than fixing the mold problem.

Black mold is not something that the school should be taking lightly. The school has offered students who are dealing with mold in their dorm rooms alternative housing options, but it has yet to actually fix the problem. Alumni who now have children that go here have complained on the Villanova Parents Facebook page that the mold issue has persisted since before they themselves graduated. Decades of students breathing in mold is unacceptable. 

Further, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased threat of the delta variant, students have been justifiably stressed over their physical health. Every sniffle, cough and sneeze this semester is a reason for concern when it could lead to quarantine. It has been hard to go anywhere on campus without hearing someone coughing, and the mold in some of the largest dorms on campus is certainly doing nothing to help the problem. 

Currently, the main group that is working to fix this problem on campus is the parents. This presents an obvious problem for the school, since, for the most part, they are the ones paying tuition. However, it is also incumbent upon us as students to make sure that our voices are being heard by the school. We are adults, and having our parents fight for an issue that is our own may be effective, but it is not their fight. We as a student body need to let the University and its administrators know that they need to take our health seriously, especially at a time when a global pandemic is still present in our lives. It is time to act, Villanova.