Instagram survey shows discontent  [21.07.23]

Mold, internet outages, vermin: An Instagram survey by the social media editorial team at the University of Hohenheim suggests that these problems in the Studierendenwerk’s (student union) dorms are not isolated cases. As a result of renovation work in neighboring dormitories, there had also been repeated water outages at Schwerzstraße 1. The Studierendenwerk promises to look for ways to improve communication with the students and to get the problems under control. At the moment, however, the Studierendenwerk does not want to take up the suggestion of a dormitory meeting.

On the occasion of the reporting by the Stuttgarter Zeitung, the SWR and the Hohenheim Online-Kurier, the social media editorial team of the University of Hohenheim posted a survey on Instagram at the beginning of July in order to gather a picture of the mood among the students.

The survey is not representative. Nevertheless, the results suggest widespread dissatisfaction among students: A total of 301 participants stated that they lived in a Studierendenwerk dormitory. Of these, 75% said they had experienced problems themselves.

Numerous participants took the opportunity to describe their problems in more detail in an open question box or by direct message. A total of 47 messages were received by the social media editorial team. The most frequently mentioned problems were water supply, mold and Internet failures, followed by vermin and rats.

Several people also complain of slow or lack of response to reports of deficiencies. For example, "The boxes [of deficiency report forms] are often empty and not refilled. And when you fill something out and drop it in with the super, it's often just ignored."

Occasionally, however, the participants also complained about roommates. For example: "Noise, disrespect, parties at very late time, non responsibility". "There are parties every night that make it impossible to sleep".

Studierendenwerk asks for direct contact

The editorial staff of the Hohenheim Online-Kurier forwarded the anonymized results of the survey to the Studierendenwerk. There, however, one perceives the situation differently.

"I can assure you that our dormitory administration does everything possible to check reported cases immediately and to eliminate any deficiencies. No one is left in the lurch. It therefore saddens us to see how many students are apparently dissatisfied with their current housing situation. However, it is somewhat surprising that only a small fraction of these students actually actively seek communication with the Studierendenwerk, the janitors or the dormitory administration and report these problems," says Philipp Mang, press spokesman for the Studierendenwerk Tübingen-Hohenheim.

In addition to the forms for reporting deficiencies, the dormitory administration can also be reached by email, phone, and during office hours or at an individually arranged appointment on site. In case of problems with the Internet, the "Netz AK" is the first point of contact for students. The voluntary working group is commissioned by the Studierendenwerk to ensure a stable network supply and to help users with problems.

As far as problems with vermin are concerned, the Studierendenwerk strongly appeals to the hygiene of the students in the dormitories.

No dormitory meeting planned at present

In the Instagram survey, 150 people expressed interest in a dorm meeting or an online meeting to talk together about current problems. However, the Studierendenwerk is not considering such a format at the moment. Instead, they want to develop their own proposals on how to improve the exchange with students, he said.

"We have already taken the strong reporting in recent weeks as an opportunity to go on the communicative offensive ourselves. We have started to contact the residents of individual dormitories and ask them for feedback regarding mold, etc. We want to expand this further," says Mang.

At the same time, Mang asks students to be patient. As a consequence of recent incidents and complaints, changes have already been initiated. However, implementation will take some time. In addition, there is the great difficulty of finding specialized companies to take care of the elimination of defects in a timely manner. The dormitory administration therefore also wants to check whether students can receive interim notification in the event of longer waiting times.

Background: Water outages

The Studierendenwerk wants to fundamentally improve the situation in old dormitories in the medium term and is currently investing around €14 million to this end. According to the Studierendenwerk, the frequent interruptions to the water supply in Schwerzstraße 1 are directly related to the renovation work.

One of the two houses - Schwerzstraße 3 - has already been completely renovated. In another - Schwerzstraße 2 - construction work is still ongoing. As part of the refurbishment, the hot water supply was changed over, which also supplies the unrefurbished house. However, old plastic pipes are still in place there that are not designed to meet the requirements of the new heating system. A circumstance, which also the specialized companies had not foreseen.

After several weeks of intensive searching, it was now possible to find an engineering firm to inspect the pipes of the old dormitories and work out a solution.

In the event of another water failure, the university wants to provide support and offers the students of the affected dormitories to use the showers and toilets in the sports hall. Contrary to what its name suggests, the Studierendenwerk itself is not part of the university, but an independent company. Particularly in its operational business, the Studierendenwerk acts completely independently.

Text: Leonhardmair | Translation: International Office