Since 2001, the 18 E. Congress Parkway Building has been plagued with problems. The building, leased to Columbia by Hostelling International, saw issues with maintenance and general upkeep of the building, a Chronicle investigation found. In 2009, students say it hasn’t gotten much better.

In addition to the lead-based paint found in the 18 E. Congress Parkway Building, students have complained about rodents, insects and general maintenance problems within the hostel-owned building.

Mariella Cinquegrani, a sophomore art and design major, found lead-based paint in her dormitory and has since been released from her contract. The lead levels found by city officials were nearly 10 times more than what city ordinance allows. The college and Hostelling International told students the findings were not any cause for concern.

Thomas Volpe, chief engineer at Hostelling International, said a contractor has been selected to begin the lead abatement process and an environmental consultant will assess both Cinquegrani’s room and the building to determine what renovations need to be done.

Kim Turner, assistant general manager at Hostelling International, and Mary Oakes, director of Residence Life at Columbia, said any students affected by the renovations will have to be relocated until the proper repairs have been made.

Lead, however, was the last of the complaints she and her roommates had with the structure, Cinquegrani said. She said they had filed multiple requests with Residence Life and building maintence to fix many of the existing problems with their loft, for which they pay $10,138 for nine months of living.

In her written statement sent to Residence Life on Nov. 17, Cinquegrani cited various pest sightings, such as earwigs, bed bugs, meal bugs and mice. She also said in her statement that when the girls moved in, the carpet was stained, dried food had set on the walls and crumbs and other old food particles had been found in cabinets. Cinquegrani said she was not alone in her complaints.

“There were mice droppings in the apartment across the hall from us,” Cinquegrani said.

The room across the hall belonged to Geena Sondy, a sophomore audio arts and acoustics major, who said she had many of the same complaints as her neighbors. She, like the suitemates who reported the lead-based paint, has requested to be relieved of all financial obligations from her contract for spring 2009.

Sondy said the mice droppings she found were above all the kitchen cabinets. Upon noticing them she reported it to her resident assistant, Chelsea Johnson.

“She called in her supervisor, he looked at it and at first was like, ‘Those aren’t mice droppings,'” she said. “Chelsea, my R.A., said, ‘Yes they are’ and argued about it. He filed a report [with] Residence Life in the building. So, he finally did admit that they were.”

In an e-mail to The Chronicle, Johnson said she was not allowed to comment on matters in the residence hall.

Turner said there has been no evidence or sightings of mice outside of this one instance by any other guests or employees in the hostel, who share floors with Columbia students. However, when this type of complaint is filed, pest control company Orkin is called within 24 to 48 hours to address the issue, she said.

Sondy’s apartment is a four-bedroom loft with a bathroom, a kitchen area and living room. The walls are dented with various scuff marks, the vents are filled with dust and paint is peeling from the walls in a couple of the rooms.

She said the apartment was in this state when she moved into the building in August 2008, which she signed a room condition report for. In the report, everything in the room was said to be in good condition, Sondy said. All students who rent from Columbia must sign these reports before moving in, Oakes said.

Oakes said the rooms are checked by her staff every semester for these types of issues, and students have an opportunity to report discrepancies within the first two days of their move-in date.

“When the student signs, it even says this on the room condition report, they have 48 hours to go back to the R.A.,” she said. “The reason for that is the speed of getting people in because you’ve got your whole family here waiting. You don’t want to wait too long to get into your house and do your moving in.”

She said another reason is so the students wouldn’t be liable for any damage done to the room before they arrived.

Sondy, like her neighbors, said she had filed multiple requests that were not met. For example, she said around October 2008 the heat in her room and the room across the hall didn’t work. Sondy said after multiple requests to repair the heat went unanswered, a resident called the police. The hostel finally agreed to send an emergency repairman after the police were notified.

“He said it was so heavily covered with dust the heat could not come through,” she said.

Oakes said she received the same call and “immediately called the general manager” to address the situation.

Volpe said he and his staff have put in place a “preventative maintenance plan” to address issues like this one. Since winter break, all the vents have been checked, assessed and repaired, he said.

“Part of the preventative maintenance program is routine. That’s the key,” he said. “Obviously, we could check a unit, and 10 minutes later the unit could fail. It’s mechanical. Starting in December we went through every room, changed all the filters and went through checking the units for operation.”

Volpe and his staff work seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but there is no 24-hour maintenance staff for the building. He said if an emergency arises, an outside maintenance person will fix the issues.

Sondy said she didn’t expect these kinds of living conditions when she signed the lease to her unit, which, like Cinquegrani, she pays $10,138 per year for. She said she broke that down to $1,100 per month. Her three roommates also pay the same price, making the apartment $4,400 per month.

Sondy’s tour of Columbia showed her units at the University Center of Chicago, 525 S. State St., and she assumed all the dorms were in the same condition.

“When I signed my contract I thought I would be living in the UC,” she said. “I was never shown this apartment.”

Marie Cortopassi, a staff member in the tour center, said they usually don’t show the 18 E. Congress Parkway Building on their tours. Students only tour the UC.

“It’s been handed down by my supervisors that it’s the best facility to show,” she said. “[The UC is] our newest facility, and it might be something with Residence Life saying that it’s the only facility we are capable of going in and out with such a large number of people.”

Tours and open houses are organized by Cortopassi’s supervisor, Ania Greiner, assistant director of events and tours in the Undergraduate Admissions Office. She said the reason why the UC is the only dorm shown is for convenience.

“It’s difficult for students to give up their rooms to show for two tours a day,” Greiner said. “The University Center often has a room available that’s empty that we show. Also, the University Center has the cafeteria and some of the facilites we want to show our prospective families.”

Cortopassi also said it’s a very controlled process when touring Columbia facilities. Residence Life hands down what can and can’t be shown to prospective students and their families.

“We’re not allowed to just go in and out of any building,” she said. “The tour guides have to be registered with the University Center to even bring in any students at all.”

Oakes said the reasoning behind not showing the 18 E. Congress Parkway Building to prospective students and families was to not disrupt any business done by the hostel.

Cortopassi also lived at the 18 E. Congress Parkway Building four years ago when she attended Columbia. When Cortopassi was a resident, she said she “really loved that residence hall.”

Cortopassi said the biggest complaint she and other residents had while staying there was roof construction that started at 5 a.m. and lasted until noon.

“I really enjoyed that building,” she said. “Socially, it was a good experience.”

Sondy said issues with front desk staff and the process of having any work done to her room has also been difficult. She said she had to bring concerns directly to her R.A. and through a chain of command to get anything accomplished. The front desk had sent her back to her floor on different occasions to have the R.A. address issues.

“That’s all changed,” Volpe said. “We’ve pretty much got all that under control, and the students have been informed by the R.A.’s they need to fill out work order tickets.”

Volpe said the tickets are then placed on a hook, and he assigns each work order to one of his staff members. He said he put this system in place in January and also welcomes direct contact with students and R.A.’s having maintenance problems.

“[The R.A.’s] should all have my card,” he said. “They should all be able to e-mail me or contact me by phone. Anybody who has a complaint on any one of the floors, I welcome it. It’s not a closed door. That’s what I’m here for. I’m here to service the guests and Columbia students are guests.”