University Housing provides bedbug updates, responds to questions about RA testimony

News outlets gathered around nine University Housing administrators Wednesday morning, waiting for answers about the bedbug situation on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.

Sue Gildersleeve, University Housing director, sat in the middle of the long table.

"We believe that we have done everything we could possibly do," Gildersleeve said.

Gildersleeve returned to Lincoln late last night from an undisclosed conference and left many of the answers to her colleagues.

The purpose of the meeting was to update the media about the bedbug situation on campus, said Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Juan Franco.

"Our goal is to inspect every room in all the residence halls on the campus," Franco said.

"We know this is a big enterprise … so how long will it take us to do that? It depends on our resources."

Glen Schumann, associate director of facilities, estimated the time at a month to a month and a half.

The bedbug-sniffing dog, Spots, is the only dog qualified in the state of Nebraska, and Housing is looking at out-of-state agencies to bring in a couple more to search all rooms, Franco said.

Cassie Olson, a senior communication studies major, said Housing has done a really good job informing students.

"Housing doesn't want this to be an issue," Olson said. "They're doing their best to resolve this stressful situation."

But bringing the dog around to check out the rooms isn't 100 percent effective. Schumann stated the dog is 95 percent effective and Spots has been able to identify rooms with bedbugs.

There is another issue with dogs: allergies.

Elizabeth Johnson, a senior Spanish and Russian major, said she's extremely allergic to dogs and found it annoying when the dog came around her floor in Selleck Quadrangle.

Johnson lives in the Selleck 5100-6100 block of rooms and Spots came to sniff her resident assistant's room.

She said she heard the dog did not positively identify bedbugs at first.

"They knew the RA had bites," Johnson said. "They had to cut into the futon before they found the bugs."

While Housing addressed how it was going to treat bedbugs, administrators didn't fully answer other questions.

When the story of Amanda Wekesser, a Selleck resident assistant, was brought to the table, Gildersleeve labeled the issue a sensitive topic.

"It's pretty clear that what was shown in the emails was not the whole story," she said. "It doesn't give the full context."

The issue was directed to Keith Zaborowski, Residence Life associate director, on whether Wekesser was informed not to say anything to her residents.

"Whether it's an RA or a student, our protocol with them has always been it's your choice what you chose to disclose," Zaborowski said. "I can tell you I have never instructed anybody to say anything different."

Corrine Gernhart, resident director of Selleck, was not present at the briefing to answer any questions.

Zaborowski, who said he meets with all the residence directors once a week, said there has not been a meeting recently to discuss protocol.

When the topic of Housing reporting "one single dead bedbug" was brought up, Gildersleeve said the misinformation didn't matter.

"We treated that room just as if it had been an extreme situation," Gildersleeve said. "I'm a little confused as to why that is a big issue."

In her answer, Gildersleeve stated that only one dead bedbug was found in Wekesser's room.

"That's not being transparent," Wekesser said, hearing the quote Wednesday afternoon. "Dead bugs can't bite, but live ones can still get transported."

On Tuesday night, Wekesser attended a Selleck staff meeting, which Zaborowski, Gildersleeve, Gernhart and Rob Andrews, assistant director of Residence Life, attended.

Wekesser sat between Gildersleeve, Zaborowski and Gernhart and recorded the meeting without their knowledge.