Residents at the Indy deal with various incidents ranging from trash and dog feces in the halls, to routine false fire alarms and racist graffiti.
Residents living in the Indy, an off-campus housing complex in Marietta marketed as high-end student housing, have recently dealt with issues such as dog feces, vandalism using racial slurs and most recently fire alarms going off throughout the night.
In a statement shared with the Sentinel, Campus Life & Style, the company that manages the Indy, said that a recent lightning strike damaged the fire alarm system and caused the alarms to go off spontaneously, in addition to the alarms being pulled.
“The Indy management team is aware of the fire alarms that were triggered recently,” Campus Life & Style Chief Marketing Officer Jessica Nix said in the statement. “We know this is frustrating for our student residents.”
The statement continues, saying, “Additionally, false alarms were pulled by residents or guests, and in-unit alarms tampered with triggered more sirens.” Campus Life & Style says that what they called “behavioral issues” have been addressed.
According to student reports acknowledged by Campus Life & Style, there have been similar disruptive incidents at the Indy.
In Oct. 2022, there was racist graffiti sprayed on an interior wall. After this first instance, Campus Life & Style says additional security cameras were installed on each residential floor and parking deck. They also said that they immediately reported this incident to the police.
After the first instance of vandalism, there was another incident in July, in which the word “Bye”, followed by a racial slur was spray painted on an interior hallway wall.
“We immediately reported the incident to the Cobb County Police Department,” a separate statement issued on July 24 said. “The Cobb County Police Department has our full cooperation, and we will do everything in our power to assist the authorities in their investigation.”
Campus Life & Style said the more recent incident in July, “occurred in an area that was not captured on camera.”
Speaking with WSB-TV recently, Kennesaw State student Alesse Powell said that she felt unsafe and was ready to leave the complex.
“I was ready to break my lease and leave,” Powell said.
Her sentiments were shared by fellow KSU student Kiara Matthews, who said in the same WSB broadcast she felt concerned and noted this was especially concerning to her.
“I feel concerned, just because there are a lot of people of color in our building,” Matthews said.
Campus Life & Style said that the Oct. 2022 case is still open and that, “This incident does not represent the views of the Indy and our staff nor the premium living experience we strive to offer our residents.”
In their statement, Campus Life & Style said that the damage caused by the lightning has been repaired.
