This story idea was submitted by Aaron Strain as a part of The State News' reader generated issue.
At Eli Broad College of Business, resident students are required to pay an extra $230 a month for ‘business college fees.’ However, the college’s filtered water is reportedly prone to turning brown after a few hours of bottling, prompting some students to raise concerns.
“If you fill up a water bottle from the ‘filtered’ fountains in the business college, by the end of one class the water will have turned brown,” accounting senior Aaron Strain said in an email.
Strain demonstrated this by filling an empty water bottle from a first-floor fountain in the college, which was then photographed next to a bottle of store-bought water over the next few hours, showing a stark discoloration.
“That’s filtered water right there. If I saw that water in a restaurant, I would leave immediately, I would never come back,” Strain said.
Strain said the problem has been going on since he was a freshman.
“Yeah, we get well water here, but we pay a $230 business college fee every semester, they could, between water softener and whatever else they could do,” Strain said. “I think with all the money we’re putting towards the college, they (should be able to update something). Being here all day, I should be able to get clean water without having to buy it somewhere else.”
Hospitality business senior Stephanie MacPherson had not experienced the discoloration, but avoids drinking water from the first floor altogether, as she said quality differs depending on which floor of the building the fountain is on.
“I personally never drink first floor business college water, it really is undrinkable,” MacPherson said. “Sometimes I think I’m thirsty enough to drink it, then I change my mind as soon as I try it.”
MacPherson said she gets her water from the hospitality business school on the second floor of the building, which she said is of normal quality.
When called for comment, an Eli Broad College of Business official said this is the first they’ve heard of the issue and that they will begin to look into it.
