Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

First-Year Residential Hall Floods, Leading to Student Frustration

The fourth floor of Copley Hall, a first-year residential building, flooded following the overflow of a suite toilet, forcing residents to move many of their belongings into a different suite and stay in the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center.

Water from the flood leaked April 15 into the hallway and through the floor into the suite below the affected room, causing damage to a room on the third floor of Copley. Simone Guite (CAS ’26) said she and her two other suitemates were elsewhere in the building when the flood started, but that when they returned to their room, it was flooded. 

“By the time I arrived from the common room, half of my room was flooded,” Guite wrote. “I started taking everything I could off the floor like my power strip, rug, slippers and storage bins with clothes.”

A faulty valve in the toilet caused continuous flushing and overflowing that led to the flood, according to a university spokesperson. 

“When maintenance technicians arrived, they were able to shut the water off to the toilet,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Plumbers later responded to replace the defective part. Team members also cleaned up water in the impacted rooms.”

Photo courtesy of Emma Vonder Haar | A private bathroom in Copley Hall, a freshman residential building, flooded and forced students to live in the Georgetown Hotel for several days.

Guite said the flooding was not the first time they had issues with the toilet in their suite. 

“We have had toilet issues all semester. The first day of the Spring semester we called facilities because our toilet was leaking,” Guite said. 

Following the flooding, Residential Living followed up with students, the spokesperson said. 

“Residential Living staff followed up with impacted students about their spaces and belongings. Facilities staff worked to clean items that were impacted and return the spaces to the best state possible,” the spokesperson wrote. 

Guite called facilities multiples times about the flood. After the toilet was shut off and the water in Guite’s room vacuumed up, employees from Residential Living asked Guite, her roommate and her suitemates if they could stay in a friend’s room overnight. Residential Living eventually found them rooms in the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center.

The water from the flood in Guite’s room also leaked through the floor and into Charlie Majcher’s (SFS ’26) room on the third floor of Copley Hall.

Majcher said many of his electronics were ruined by the flooding and that he was sitting in his room with his headphones on when he realized that water was seeping through his ceiling April 15.

“I looked over and saw water pouring out of the ceiling all over my bed and all over my guitar,” Majcher wrote to The Hoya. 

“I quickly moved the guitar out of the now waterfall coming from the ceiling but the water had now started coming from every hole in the ceiling. I had a speaker, laptop, DJ deck, Xbox, clothes, TV and pretty much all of my valuables and electronics sitting on my desk when the main light that had filled up with about 30 gallons of water broke, ruining the rest of my possessions,” Majcher added. 

The flood comes after a similar event on the second floor of Copley Hall on Feb. 9, when a toilet handle in a second floor suite snapped. Last year, residents of Copley also complained of flooding, which sparked frustrations among students over university response to the situation. 

Majcher has been living in a hotel room since the flooding occurred. According to Majcher, It took facilities 48 hours to bring the necessary supplies to his dorm to dry up the water, even after he submitted multiple work order submissions. Majcher told The Hoya that the magnitude of this incident was avoidable. 

Two days after the flood, a third-party contractor hired by the university arrived at Guite’s suite to address the water from the flood that had leaked under the walls, into the hallway and into her suitemates’ room.

“This could all have been prevented if Georgetown Facilities had done their job or worked at a pace that would be of any help to students,” Majcher added.

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