When Judy Jones, wife of Chancellor Steve Jones, detected a "strong sewer smell" wafting out of her restroom last Friday, she didn't have to look far for help.

UAF Facility Services was on the job.

Jones was preparing for a Sunday dinner party for Audubon International President Ronald Dodson, and likely didn't want to give her guest such a malodorous topic for table talk.

Ron Dupee, a maintenance worker in Facility Service's housing shop, said the stench came from an overly dry shower. Dorms and other houses across campus encounter the problem all the time, he said.

When showers go a long time unused, water in the p-trap dries up, allowing sewer gases to backflow. Ridding the chancellor's digs of the odor was a piece of cake, Dupee said.

"Just a cup of water and we're good to go," he said.

That half-hour job cost $33.50 for labor, according to the work order.

The Joneses live in the downstairs, which has its own bathroom, and use the top floor for entertaining company. Dodson, who runs an international non-profit conservation organization, spent last week as a house guest at the chancellor's place, Chancellor Jones said. Dodson never ever noticed the smell, he said.

"Not that he's mentioned at any rate," Jones said.

Dinner guests like Sunday's frequent the house regularly, dropping by up to four evenings a week, Jones said. Directors from the College of Rural and Community Development, for example, visited on Thursday.

Jones, who has previously worked with Dodson's organization at Auburn University and North Carolina State, said UAF and Audubon are exploring partner opportunities. Dodson gave a lecture Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Jones took him to Anchorage to speak with various groups.

Strange smells are also frequent guests at the house. Maintenance workers arrived at the house in November to investigate a smell coming from their bedroom, a work order shows. UAF spent $100.50 in labor to clean all the roof vents to fix the problem, the order records.

Last month, the department scoured for explanations to a "creosote smell" fuming from the fireplace, records show.

John Blake, a department manager at Home Depot, speculated the chancellor's shower smell could also be related to the house's vents, which may have frozen over during the recent cold spell.

"If you don't have a vent to let it out, then you're not going to get rid of anything," he said.

This is not the first time the Joneses have had plumbing problems. In August, Facility Services spent five hours repairing the upstairs toilet, as well as the drain main and washing machine, a work order shows. Labor for those projects cost $335, the order says.

In late November, the sewer line froze or clogged, records show, causing water to rise out of a manhole.

Dupee described any plumbing maintenance at the house as regular. Jones said house repairs are "usually the result of a call we made."

Built in 1954, the five-bedroom house UAF provides the Joneses today values at $815,848, according to Kris Roberts, a university budget analyst. Repairs are common, with UAF spending thousands in public monies on the now-aging house, according to budget documents.

"It's over 50 years old, and it occasionally has problems," Jones said.

At President Mark Hamilton's house on Yankovich Road, opened in 1994 and valued at more than $1.8 million according to a building inventory, composting toilets and a plumbing system that utilizes various heat sources including solar help make it the "most energy efficient home ever built in the state," a university website says.

Nationally, 32.5 percent of all college presidents are provided with houses by their institutions, according to a 2002 survey by the American Council on Education. Numbers were unavailable for how often their showers go on the fritz.