When freshmen Stephen Charnicki and Brady Emerson turned on the light in their Best C Hall room one night after watching a movie, they thought the wet spot they saw on their floor was spilled Coke.
The spot, no bigger than a magazine when it first appeared in November, soon turned into a six-foot-long, two-foot-wide stain that saturated the carpet with a thick brown liquid.
The puddle, later deemed potentially hazardous by the University, forced Charnicki and Emerson out of their room.
The roommates are two of more than half a dozen students who say they have encountered unhealthy living conditions in Best C within the past year.
Charnicki and Emerson alerted maintenance the same night they noticed the stain, and someone came in to look at it the next day, Emerson said.
"They basically came in and said, 'That's interesting' and left," the computer information systems freshman said.
Soon after, someone came in to shampoo the carpet.
"He asked me if I peed in my sleep — I think he was kidding," Emerson said.
Work orders are typically responded to within 24 hours, said John Herrera, manager of ASU's Facilities Management, in an e-mail sent by Residential Life spokeswoman Susan Walker.
If maintenance deems it necessary, Environmental Services or Risk Management comes in to perform tests to ensure that the quality of the environment is within acceptable standards, Herrera said.
Charnicki, a freshman electrical engineering student, said ASU's response was quick but ineffective.
While waiting for maintenance to do something, the roommates sopped up what goo they could with paper towels.
After about a week, Emerson said, they abandoned the paper towels and started using newspaper to cover the spot that now took up most of the floor space in their room.
Emerson said maintenance initially told them their room was over a six-inch concrete slab with no water pipes underneath it, so there was no explanation for the liquid's presence.
They were later told, though, that the blueprints for the building were lost, and it couldn't be determined where the pipes were, Emerson said.
After winter break, the two returned to learn the spot they had been living with for three weeks had been deemed unsafe. They were relocated to Hayden South, where they are currently living.
Residents living in Best C said Emerson and Charnicki's room was still being worked on this week, as was the second floor bathroom, closed because it was leaking into the computer lab below.
Maintenance requests submitted over the past month for the building include concerns over screeching noises coming from the ceiling, bathroom lights that aren't working, and malfunctioning toilets and urinals, some spilling waste onto the floor.
Charnicki and Emerson's experience was just one of many reported in Best C within the last year.
Chemistry sophomore Brandon Jones moved into Best C the fall of his freshman year and stayed for a year and a half. But Jones now lives off campus — though he still pays for his dorm room.
Around the same time another room was vacated and treated for asbestos contamination last fall, Jones said, he and other students began feeling sick.
They complained, but not much was done, Jones said.
"All we got was a meeting for the floor telling us about how everything's fine," he said.
Jones said he continued to feel sick and decided to move out during winter break. He applied for release from his housing contract, but he said the only reasons he was told were sufficient for ending the contract were military service or health problems.
"They didn't think asbestos in the air was a valid health reason," he said.
Herrera did not comment on Best C issues specifically but said the University works with students when they have complaints. He referenced a February complaint in Best A dorm in which he said students mistook dust to be mold.
But Herrera said it's up to the resident to determine whether they want to stay in their dorm if they feel the area isn't safe.
"Affected residents would never be asked to live in an unsafe environment during the process," he said.
Bioengineering sophomore Mario Zamora lived in the room next door to Jones during the 2006-2007 school year.
On the last day in his room in May, Zamora turned over his mattress to find it covered in mold.
"It was a little disgusting, to be honest," he said.
Reach the reporter at: allison.denny@asu.edu.