Students living at The Summit Apartments say major maintenance problems and slow, vague updates from housing staff have created frustration and distrust from the community to the administration. Residents report various ongoing issues including a lack of hot water, marijuana odors in hallways, out-of-service laundry machines and a weak gym air conditioner. They complain that management responses often come days after complaints surface.
The largest and most-mentioned problem is a lack of hot water. As reported by WABC in 2023, “Amid freezing temperatures — students living in the Summit Dorm at Queens College had no heat or hot water for several days this week.” The duration of the problem worries both returning and new residents, who are less than confident that that problem will be solved for good this time.
“The email came after, and I think it took them maybe about a week, maybe five, six days after,” said Maxim Libin, a freshman-resident when asked about the recent cold water issue. He elaborated further on problems in the building, “I constantly see one or two washing machines are out of service, and maybe it takes a week or two to fix them… The gym AC is really weak, so sometimes it gets really hot in [the] gym, and it’s almost impossible to work out.”
Camille Shipman-McQueen, Director of Housing and Residence Life at the Summit, who also resides in the building, told The Knight News, “We have vendors that are working on resolving the issue … Unfortunately, the weather has been extremely cold … We are contacting them weekly … Because, again, we live here as well, and we understand what students are paying for, and they should have hot water.”
Shipman-McQueen encouraged residents to reach out about any issues: “If it’s something that has happened, where they have not directly communicated with our office… We are always open for them to come and speak to us. Again, they can always send an email to the housing email … we do address issues once we know what they are.”
Jessup Peterson, Assistant Director for Leasing and Marketing at the Summit, explained his initiatives to improve conditions at The Summit: “My priority as the leasing and marketing assistant director is to work through some of these resident concerns and things like that to make sure that we’re retaining students and retaining residents. But outside of that, it is marketing to our students. Queens College has a very diverse student population that come from all over the country and all over the world, and so part of my priorities are getting marketing out to those people to try to get them to stay here. We wanna fill the beds. We wanna create that community that is safe, secure and well-maintained, so the students will be retained.”
Housing leadership cites external factors like cold weather, vendor delays, and stresses open communication while residents continue to call for quicker acknowledgment and fixes to rebuild trust. While the staff at The Summit aim to rectify all issues revolving around communication and living standards, it remains to be seen if resident satisfaction will improve or remain unchanged over the winter season.
