Huntington News

Issue date: 5/23/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Photo Illustration/Eric Baumann

After several months of watching their dirty dishes pile up, some West Village residents started clearing their plates last week as the university began installing new dishwashers.

On March 14, residents of West Village A, B, C and E and Willis Hall were informed through a letter from Residence Life that their dishwashers would be disabled due to a recall issued by Maytag Corporation.

The recall, which affected about 2.3 million units nationwide, was announced by Maytag Feb. 1. Dishwashers were disabled in 284 university suites, leaving about 1,200 students without dishwashers, said Stan Duci, director of customer service at facilities.

The dishwashers were disabled March 16, two days after students received notification. Many students said they were unaware of the actions until after their units had been disabled.

On Thursday, the Northeastern facilities division began replacing units in West Village A North suites. Dishwashers will be replaced at a rate of about 20-30 units per week and the installation should be finished by mid-August, Duci said.

"We didn't make this decision lightly. We consulted with the highest levels of the university and our No. 1 concern was the safety of the students. We didn't want anything happening to them," he said.

The dishwashers presented a fire hazard, as liquid rinse-aid could leak and cause the machine's wiring to short circuit and ignite, according to Maytag's recall. While there were 135 dishwasher fires reported nationally, Northeastern residence halls were incident-free, Duci said.

"They said somebody was going to be coming in to take a look at our dishwasher. They didn't imply that it was going to be permanently disabled," said Tim LaRose, a junior computer science major. "I thought that they were going to come in for a routine clean."

Initially, Northeastern facilities worked with Maytag to have the recalled dishwashers repaired. After several weeks of waiting for repair parts, they notified Whirlpool and negotiated a price of $60,000 per unit to have each dishwasher replaced instead, Duci said.

"We're doing the right thing, judging from the reaction from the students that are getting the units. They're very happy to see them come in," he said. "We regret that we couldn't get them in quicker."

Along with a Hershey's chocolate bar, another letter was sent to West Village residents during intersession, informing them that the units would be replaced within the following weeks.

Tiffany Csik, a middler physical therapy major, said that the chocolate bar was like "compensation for the dishwasher not working." However, Csik said she now avoids eating in her apartment and is unhappy with the wait.

"You're paying more for heat and the dishwasher if you live in those places, but now it's taken away," Csik said.

LaRose said the disabling was an inconvenience, but that it did not bother him until he had to manually clean his dishes.

"Once a month we spend four hours doing dishes," he said. "Until then they just pile up in the sink and look disgusting."

Residence Life could not be reached for comment.

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