Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Steve Berry Some residents of Cougar Village refuse to use community grills because of sanitary reasons. Some grills contain dirt and grime as well as old food and cigarette butts.

Students living in Cougar Village apartments have resigned themselves to no longer having personal grills.

University Housing decided over the summer that, starting this fall, safety precautions would require students to use other means to cook their meals.

Cougar residents have reacted in various ways to the new policy, and have made adjustments accordingly. Some had to have parents come to pick up their grills. Some residents had to resort to throwing away their grills. Many, such as Kimberley Knowles, chose not to bring their grills to campus at all.

"I didn't bring mine because I knew (about the new policy). We weren't going to be allowed to use them, so there was no point," Knowles said.

A casual glance or a walk through Cougar Village reveals that a sizable portion of students have chosen not to part with their grills. Cougar resident Terry Goble said that some residents still use their charcoal grills nearly every day. Some second floor Cougar dwellers have chosen to keep their grills, unbeknownst to Housing.

Another Cougar resident, Latasha Traylor, said that she and her friends have resorted to going off campus for cookouts and barbecues. Traylor and other residents have had to use other means to simulate the experience when they are on campus, as well.

"I've got a George Foreman grill, and we use that all the time now," Holly Fleigele said.

University Housing's insistence that communal grills already in place at Cougar Village would suffice has proven to be a particular point of contention for residents, many of whom feel that the grills are unsanitary and have refused to use them at all.

"They're really dirty; I wouldn't even put food covered in aluminum foil on those," Traylor said.

Michael Hungerford, the Environmental Health manager at the Madison County Health Department, offered some advice for properly cleaning the outdoor grills and also discussed the potential problems with improperly or inadequately cleaned grills.

Continued...

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