Parents furious after finding out their Clark Atlanta University dorms are unhabitable
ATLANTA - Yvonne Page came from Chicago to help get her son Brandon moved into his dorm room at Clark Atlanta University.
When they showed up, they found out that would not be happening.
"Hundreds of in-state and out-of-state college students [have] no dorm or residency," she said.
FOX 5’s viewer tip email address was flooded with parents who said the same thing. Clark Atlanta’s Heritage Commons was still under renovation on Friday, leaving students that arrived from all over the country displaced.
"It’s an error that Clark made, and they need to own it," said Tewana Nelson, who drove from North Carolina. "They never gave us the indication that the building that the dorms they were supposed to stay in actually we’re under renovation."
More than a hundred families piled into an auditorium to await word from university officials as to where they could go. The parents wished they had known of the renovation delays before they showed up with moving boxes.
"It was inexcusable," said Jerry Fulton. "The only thing they had to do was just tell the truth."
The university eventually got students into off-campus student housing on Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center’s campus, about 2.5 miles away.
Other students were sent to hotel rooms about 20 minutes from campus, where the university is paying for them to stay until next week.
It’s not clear what will happen after that.
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University officials were not available for an interview.
A spokesperson for Clark Atlanta sent this statement:
"Move-in week is a special time for students and their families. We understand how important it is for families to know their students have what they need for a successful start to the school year.
While most of our dorm rooms are ready for freshmen and upper-class students to move-in, we sincerely apologize that renovations to one of our main dorms, Heritage Commons have run behind schedule.
Right now, we are speaking with students and families to listen to their concerns, and to let them know we understand. We are working diligently to resolve this issue and are offering temporary housing and transportation solutions until the renovations are complete.
At Clark Atlanta University, our students come first. We will stay in touch with all affected students and families, provide updates to ensure we take care of them and get this unfortunate challenge resolved as soon as possible.
We ask for the patience of affected students and families and we thank them for working with us."
Some parents said their children were staying with the friends as they figure something out.
Page said she found that the conditions at the off-campus housing were uninhabitable as well, so she got her son Brandon an Airbnb.
Clark Atlanta University did not provide a timeline of when the renovations will be completed.
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