Allergy-ridden students combat hazards of university living

By: Jennie Kushlish

Posted: 9/7/05

When Jill Reuter toured the Sumner Avenue home she leased for this school year, she was greeted by its four-legged tenant, beloved by all but the landlord.

"We knocked on the door and thought, 'That's cute,'" said Reuter, a senior public relations major. "I didn't think the cat would affect me a year later."

Arriving on campus in August, Reuter said she overlooked the dirt and broken fixtures characteristic of off-campus houses. But she and her roommates decided the funny pattern on their blue, floral couch deserved a second look.

The hand-me-down sofa was cloaked in a layer of cat hair.

"When I saw the hair I thought, 'I'm gonna die,'" said Reuter, gesturing to the couch she had tossed to the curb in the name of allergies. "My eyes would've gone crazy. I would've been blinded."

Reuter said her allergy to cat hair had never before affected her living situation. In fact, she keeps an outdoor cat at her family home - and throws him treats and kisses from a distance. But for students living on-campus and with certain allergies, comfort can't be guaranteed with the removal of furniture.

The most common allergy plaguing students with on-campus housing is smoke, which can usually be remedied by pairing the allergic student with a non-smoker, said Steve Saur, managing director for a section of student housing at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Saur has also installed hypoallergenic furnace filters to accommodate students allergic to dust.

"Any allergy that would require extra cleaning is the student's personal responsibility - unless it affects the entire community," Saur said.

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, students with allergies are given priority in the school's only air-conditioned dorm, said Amy Stewart, a student assistant for Housing and Dining Services. But she says allergy-related requests are rare.

Special requests by Syracuse University students are often filtered to FixIt, which sends maintenance workers to change floors and vents, according to the Office of Housing and Meal Plans. While SU students are required to live on campus for two years, Reuter reported hearing rumors that students with unmanageable allergies can be exempt.

"People do anything to get out of housing," Reuter said. "My friend faked a heart problem to park in Booth's garage rather than at Manley."

Meg Hart lived on both North and South Campus throughout her junior year, despite countless allergies.

She arrived at Booth Hall freshman year armed with a new hypoallergenic mattress and doctor's orders to vacuum her room every two to three days. When she didn't keep her space clean, the mold and dust that collected would trigger allergic reactions.

Hart, an interior design major, was prepared to Swiffer her way to easy breathing. But she knew she couldn't prevent randomly assigned roommates from irritating those and other allergies.

Hart recalled two instances where food left on common room tables - a perk for most college students - caused allergic reactions. One roommate picked apples and left them out on display. For three months, Hart quietly kept her distance from the apples' skin, which ranks relatively low on her list of aversions.

She also avoided the common room when her roommates' bowl of pistachios, nuts she's "deathly allergic to," caused allergic reactions.

"I didn't ask them to move it," Hart said with a laugh, "because they ate them quickly.

"It's just something I live with. It's not something everyone has to deal with, so why should they have to cater to me?"

As sensitive as Hart is to her roommates, some of her sensitivities are too difficult to ignore. A roommate's hamster called their common room its home for a mere three days, before Hart grew tired of confining herself to an adjoining bedroom.

Hart says she has been lucky to live with considerate roommates - some who tease playfully and others with similar allergies. This year, the six roommates sharing her off-campus house pitched in for an initial round of "extreme cleaning." Hart's parents led the charge, wiping down the walls and bleaching the bathroom.

"You take your allergy pill, your eye drops and your nasal spray and you're fine," Hart said.