LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- The photos shared thousands of times online showing roaches crawling on walls and in sinks and mold growing throughout the rooms paint a grim picture of dorm life inside Threlkeld Hall on the campus of the University of Louisville.
"It's growing on air vents," freshman Bethany Morgan said. "It started growing on girls' shoes, their pillows, on decorations. It's very disgusting and it should not be happening."
Morgan, whose post on Facebook has been shared more than 17,000 times as of Sunday evening, said she and her fellow dorm mates started noticing the problems shortly after they moved in, but for the past few months, they said their pleas for help to campus housing and even school administrators have fallen on deaf ears.
"The first couple of times they kind of brushed us off and said it wasn't a big deal," she said. "They told me and my roommate that the mold wasn't going to affect our health in any shape or form."
But Morgan said that is not true. She said several of the people living in her hall have gotten sick and have even had to go to the hospital because of the living conditions.
"I woke up one morning, I had completely swollen eyes," she said. "They were really irritated, running nose, excruciating headaches. It was really terrible. I've had to miss class multiple times from being sick because of it."
In a statement sent Saturday, a UofL spokesperson wrote in part, "Campus Housing is aware of the complaint and has been in contact with the student in an effort to resolve this issue. Housing officials also have inspected the building on several occasions and have immediately addressed concerns raised by other individuals."
Sunday evening, Morgan and several other students met with campus housing officials to discuss the issue in the lobby of Threlkheld Hall.
"I am glad that they finally listened to us and sat us all down. We had a really good turnout, which I'm really happy about that."
Morgan said around 50 students came out for the meeting and that campus housing staff were taking notes about their complaints. While Morgan said it is a step in the right direction, she said more needs to be done.
"They didn't address what they were going to do specifically, which disappointed me a little bit, but they did say they were going to try to get to the issues as quickly as they could," she said.
Morgan said campus housing told students they would try to clean out the mold in rooms with a cleaning solution, and had plans to do certain renovations in the building during winter break.
►Contact reporter Dennis Ting at dting@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@DennisJTing) and Facebook.