For general info, go to the housing website's official page for Tenochca Hall. The page will give you basic information on Tenochca and you can even take a virtual tour of one of the rooms!
The layout of Tenochca is very simple. There is a two-story smaller building connected to the main eight-story tower.
The two-story building houses the following:
First floor:
Second floor:
The main tower houses (all floors identical):
Tenochca's front desk is located directly behind the front entrance. When classes are in session, the desk is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is one desk assistant at the desk during daytime hours. During nighttime hours (9pm - 1am on weekdays; 9pm - 3am Friday & Saturdays) there is one desk assistant and one security monitor.
The number for Tenochca's desk is 4-2000 from an on-campus phone, (619)594-2000 from off-campus phones. Tenochca receives several calls from people trying to reach SDSU's info line, which is 4-5200. DAs can simply transfer the calls.
When there is a long waiting list for housing at the beginning of the year, the lounges are sometimes converted to four-person rooms. The study lounges on each floor are actually two resident rooms without a separating wall, which makes the conversion fairly simple. Housing tries to move all students in temporary housing to a permanent space by late October, but in 2004-05, most students were not moved until the end of the Fall semester.
Every students who is placed in temporary housing is notified before he/she ever checks in. However, parents are sometimes upset about the accommodations. The best thing to tell them is that the students actually like having a bigger room and more roommates and when the time comes for them to move out they usually ask to stay. If they want to keep complaining after that, refer them to housing, who will then refer them to the agreement they signed.
Storms tend to come in from the West (the ocean). When a storm has particularly strong winds and heavy rain, the west side of the building tends to get hit pretty hard. There are two major issues: rain leaking into resident rooms on the west side and rain leaking into the South Stairwell.
Rain leaking into resident rooms can be easily avoided because it is usually related to residents not latching their windows shut. Residents will close their windows, but that is not enough. Unless they lock the window shut horizontal rains will get through.
Rain leaking into the South Stairwell is a tougher issue but it is fortunately a rarity. Because there is only grating in the stairwell, water can leak into the stairwell and damage the smoke detectors. This will only happen during the STRONGEST of storms, but if it does happen simply follow duty/maintenance protocol.
During finals a popular study break program is the Midnight Pancake Breakfast, which can be held in the Tula. There are pancake griddles in the Hall Council office. Muffins, syrup, pancake batter and juice can be bought for cheap at Costco or Smart & Final.
At the end of the year Hall Council plans a big event with bands, games and free food by the pool.Special Note: Hall Council may need to secure a loud noise permit for the bands.
Immediately in front of Tenochca is a good place for the first check-in station. This keeps the building from getting overly crowded because residents and their parents can line up along the walkway. The remaining check-in stations in the Main Study Lounge across from the front desk. For more information on what you should have at each station refer to the annual report on the server under Tenochca.
At one point during the day you will have a parents' meeting in the Tula. An agenda for the meeting will be e-mailed to you prior to opening. You will basically tell the parents a little about housing and Tenochca and then field questions. Do not worry too much about this, other REO/OHA staff members will be present to help you with questions.
Intent to Vacates, Room Conditions and Express Check-out forms should be placed or filed at the front desk so that RAs and DAs can easily access them. The Express Check-out box is located on the left of the front desk (it's a large black box; you can't miss it). RAs should be given keys and packets of forms for each resident of his/her floor. You can collect all the keys and forms after you have done your final walk-thrus of each floor.
Special Note: Do not stress out too much about closing, there will be plenty of training on it at the end of the year. The closing checklist will also help you a great deal with closing, however if you would like to see how past Tenochca RHCs handled closing you can refer to the old documents on the server under Tenochca/Closing.
Tenochca is a fairly secure building due to the front desk and the two security doors (front doors and entrance to main tower). However, the courtyard between the small building and the main tower presents a significant security issue. There is a six-foot gate that blocks people from entering the courtyard, but this does not stop some guests/trespassers. In order to avoid the front desk, guests can jump the gate and attempt to enter the side door. If someone walking down the hallway will open the door for the guest(s), they can gain entry into the hallway and follow a resident through the main tower entrance. A DA can easily spot people attempting to gain entry through the side door by either looking through the windows by the mailboxes or periodically checking the circular mirror across from the front desk.
Tenochca is the only hall that has a camera surveillance system. The system is located behind the RHC Office door (you can't miss it; it looks like a big black filing cabinet). The system is run on a simple desktop computer and is always recording. When you turn the monitor on you will see a series of 16 cameras (the first floor camera by the elevator does not work). These views are of what is presently happening in the bulding. Always leave the recorder running. DO NOT CLOSE THE RECORDER. If you close the recorder window, you have stopped the system from recording. When the system is not being used simply turn off the monitor off so that images do not get burned into the screen.
The surveillance system is not the most effective user-friendly security system, but there is no reason the residents need to know that! After all, residents have been caught doing things they should not have been doing solely using the surveillance system. The most challenging aspect of the system is that tape can only be reviewed in 30 second intervals. This means that random vandalism that happens at some random point over night it is almost impossible to go through the hours of video tape to locate exactly when it happened.
For instance, if all you know is that someone drew some graffiti by the 3rd floor elevator sometime between midnight and 10:00am, there are 1200 separate video files you will have to review! Of course, you can narrow the time frame somewhat by selecting random times and seeing if the vandalism/event had or had not occurred. For instance, if you know the vandalism occurred between midnight and 10:00am, click on 5:00am. If the vandalism was not yet present then you have now ruled out the 600 video clips between midnight and 5:00am. If the vandalism is already present at 5:00am but you do not actually see anyone physically doing it at 5:00am, then you have ruled out the 600 video clips that happened between 5:00am and 10:00am. It can be time-consuming, but it's not impossible.
Using and Maintaining the Surveillance System
Viewing video:To access video clips from previous days follow the instructions below, but keep in mind that the computer only has enough memory to save approximately two weeks worth of video.
Isolating Camera Views:You may want to isolate and zoom in on a particular camera view. Once you have clicked on the 30 second interval of video you would like to view follow the instructions below.
Maintaining the system:You will need to periodically delete video files in order to clear memory. The computer will usually tell you when this needs to be done, but it is good to get in the habit of checking the system every couple of weeks. To delete video files follow the instructions below.
