Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.
Jeffrey Pierre/Assistant News Director
When most students saw dirty dishes, piles of laundry and dust bunnies, Tyler Novo and Joshua Carcasses saw opportunity.
The friends and business partners envisioned an idea to help on-campus students dealing with a hectic schedule to solve the problem of maintaining a tidy living space.
As a result, Dorm Detailers was born.
“We’re a by students and for students start-up looking to improve the overall on-campus living experience,” said Novo, a junior and business administration major. “We know with the proper exposure and education, we can become an integral part of Panther campus living experience.”
“We’re a by students and for students startup looking to improve the overall on-campus living experience,” said Novo.
Carcasses, a senior and and real estate and international relations major, says he noticed the benefit of an on-campus cleaning service after seeing the consistent pattern of unkempt rooms and a demanding daily schedule.
He and students like Jazmine Rhodes say they know this experience well.
Rhodes, a freshman and physical education major, says she supports a service Dorm Detailers would provide. It would help the transition to residential life, she says.
“Some people have the time to sit down and clean sometimes,” said Rhodes. “It also gives students a good start.”
Carcasses and Novo took experiences like these to structure their business approach.
Dorm Detailers’ greatest hindrance however has not been in structuring a strong business model, but wanting recognition from the university as a legitimate student-run business.
The university’s policy does not allow unapproved students to solicit in housing, or anywhere else on campus.
The university has rules and regulations towards sales and solicitation that any business, on campus or off campus, need to abide by to ensure student protection.
For example, the university does not allow vendors to place flyers under doors in the residence halls or throughout the campus. This protects students from being exploited by illegitimate businesses who offer bogus products and services.
However, Cathy Akens, associate vice president and dean of students at the student services office, says that Dorm Detailers is a new and unique instance.
“The university has not faced this type of issue before in terms of students who have formed a business wanting to provide a service to FIU students in the residence halls,” said Akens in an interview with Student Media.
“The university has not faced this type of issue before in terms of students who have formed a business wanting to provide a service to FIU students in the residence halls,” said Akens in an interview with Student Media.
Akens says Dorm Detailers have raised certain questions about the exact conduct of student entrepreneurs that the university is going to review.
“The questions that have been raised have really called for us to review our policies – both the broad university policies and the student code of conduct policies—to see what would be acceptable,” Akens said.
Dorm Detailers, who asserts to be a legitimate business recognized in Florida, is moving to be an approved vendor with Business Services. Novo and Carcasses say they are looking forward to working with the University and most importantly, improving the lives of students living on campus
“The feedback that we’ve gotten so far from the students has been great,” said Novo. “We’re super excited and most importantly, we’re here to help on any level. That’s what we’re here for.”
– jeffrey.pierre@fiusm.com
Totally legitimate! My goodness, this school should be happy about this!
This caught my attention because I recently wrote a cleaning services price list calculator to help make sure you’re not getting ripped off. But I think I need to alter it to include dorm-size cleaning jobs as you have spotted a trend.
–Nancy
It’s truly very difficult in this busy life to listen news on TV, so I only use internet for
that purpose, and obtain the hottest information.