About two weeks ago, my roommates and I experienced our first ever difficulty living in Carman. Our toilet had ceased to flush, and it was about midnight, during a time when all of us had to use the bathroom for our nightly business. We thought we were done for and would have to wait days or weeks to get the toilet fixed with a maintenance request. As we were beginning to run out of hope, I suddenly remembered that Illinois Tech had always silently mentioned the 24-hour maintenance that they supplied for dorms. An epiphany happened and I immediately dialed Public Safety’s non-emergency number, which was picked up by the typical officer who asked me what I needed help with.
I informed them that my roommates and I had lost all the functions in our toilet, and that it would no longer flush. The Public Safety officer then surprised me with the words I never thought I would hear past midnight, let alone 5 p.m. “facilities should be at your door soon”, words that immediately shocked me. To my pleasant surprise, the facilities member showed up not 20 minutes after the call was placed, and he showed up to my apartment with equipment to fix our toilet. It turns out it was a minor clog, but I was amazed that a facilities member had shown up close to 1 in the morning. Our ordeal was over, and our toilet worked once again, better than ever.
I never thought that facilities would even be available for this kind of maintenance so late into the night, and I was fully prepared to just have a broken toilet for a few days. Many people at Illinois Tech complain about the failures of the university and its systems. But I can safely say that the facilities members are one of the few parts of this university that seem to function as they should and deserve praise. Countless elevator breakdowns, broken toilets and even burst pipes have shown me that even the toughest of maintenance is just a small obstacle for the facilities crews. Time of day is irrelevant; they will make sure our campus runs as smoothly as possible.