Somehow I knew you'd be on top of this. Here's some info:
Our RA told us about the town houses, but this is on a bigger scale, at least 191 people are being relocated, they say for 2-6 weeks 2 weeks being very very unlikely. They might move another person into my room. We're not sure yet, but they are looking at corner rooms. Also they aren't sure if they are going to make the 3 floors evacuate in PG and Caroline while the fumigate the first and second floors. Plus we are finding mold in QA now, not on such are large scale though, so we don't think that we'll have to evacuate.
You do know that people from Maintenance were fired because of the mold problems from last year, right? I'm waiting to see what heads will roll after this fiasco - 350 students now!
The college has fucked up royally. They've known about the mold for years, and they only fired half the people they should have fired last year (via NOT THE TOP GUYS WTF). They try to hide the mold until lo and behold, it blows up in their face and they drop all this money fixing it when they could have stopped it when it first showed up (via ALL THE MOLD REPORTS THEY'VE GOTTEN FOR YEARS)!
H.S. got fired, and in fairness he *was* the one to fire, so that's done. The real question is why is the system so broken that no one listened to all the complaints that were received over the years. Why were we in a situation where housekeepers were told to paint over the mold in the closets? We have statements from alumni that prove they were getting sick from mold years before the class of 2011 even got to the College. There was failure at multiple levels. Someone ought to get the student committee's reports from last year; Marlena and I and some others (god I can barely remember) had a mold committee and we were going to make recommendations, the documents should still be in the SGA office and I know I have some notes digitized if they're needed. Derek Thornton also assured us that Physical Plant would be conducting inspections of HVAC units every 90 days, one of y'all should check to make sure that's happening.
No one's really addressed the fact that the filters in the current Townhouse HVAC units do absolutely nothing. They are the correct size, and they appear to be properly installed, but the way the unit is designed there's no filtration happening whatsoever, unless the laws of physics no longer apply on North Campus. That's the fault of the contractor who picked the units. The things are crap.
At a bare minimum, students should be able to use the Portal to file and track maintenance requests and notify supervisors if the work is not done or the problem is not addressed. That alone might've stopped the problems that happened last year.
True life, whoever was supposed to fix the water damage in the townhouse ceilings from Irene just painted over it. This happened maybe three weeks ago. Some things don't change, apparently.
People keep saying that "this mold has been going on for years and no one did anything" the problem with this is that mold isn't like a plant where you take it away and then its gone. Mold is one of those things that once it happens there are spores forever and you just have to manage moisture so it doesn't have a place to live. That is why Irene and the extremely humid year we have had can legitimately be listed as causes for this excessive mold outbreak.
This is why the school is currently cleaning the dorms AND fixing the HVAC systems AND replacing insulation where it is needed. Just as the EPA says " If there is mold growth in your home, you must clean up the mold and fix the water problem."
this is definitely cause for some PANIC
ReplyDeleteApparently they're out for a minimum of two weeks and have to move everything. EVERYTHING.
ReplyDeleteWord on the street.
Ken, you should go to Hallowgreens as a journalist.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I knew you'd be on top of this. Here's some info:
ReplyDeleteOur RA told us about the town houses, but this is on a bigger scale, at least 191 people are being relocated, they say for 2-6 weeks 2 weeks being very very unlikely. They might move another person into my room. We're not sure yet, but they are looking at corner rooms. Also they aren't sure if they are going to make the 3 floors evacuate in PG and Caroline while the fumigate the first and second floors. Plus we are finding mold in QA now, not on such are large scale though, so we don't think that we'll have to evacuate.
You do know that people from Maintenance were fired because of the mold problems from last year, right? I'm waiting to see what heads will roll after this fiasco - 350 students now!
ReplyDeleteThe college has fucked up royally. They've known about the mold for years, and they only fired half the people they should have fired last year (via NOT THE TOP GUYS WTF). They try to hide the mold until lo and behold, it blows up in their face and they drop all this money fixing it when they could have stopped it when it first showed up (via ALL THE MOLD REPORTS THEY'VE GOTTEN FOR YEARS)!
ReplyDeleteH.S. got fired, and in fairness he *was* the one to fire, so that's done. The real question is why is the system so broken that no one listened to all the complaints that were received over the years. Why were we in a situation where housekeepers were told to paint over the mold in the closets? We have statements from alumni that prove they were getting sick from mold years before the class of 2011 even got to the College. There was failure at multiple levels. Someone ought to get the student committee's reports from last year; Marlena and I and some others (god I can barely remember) had a mold committee and we were going to make recommendations, the documents should still be in the SGA office and I know I have some notes digitized if they're needed. Derek Thornton also assured us that Physical Plant would be conducting inspections of HVAC units every 90 days, one of y'all should check to make sure that's happening.
ReplyDeleteNo one's really addressed the fact that the filters in the current Townhouse HVAC units do absolutely nothing. They are the correct size, and they appear to be properly installed, but the way the unit is designed there's no filtration happening whatsoever, unless the laws of physics no longer apply on North Campus. That's the fault of the contractor who picked the units. The things are crap.
At a bare minimum, students should be able to use the Portal to file and track maintenance requests and notify supervisors if the work is not done or the problem is not addressed. That alone might've stopped the problems that happened last year.
True life, whoever was supposed to fix the water damage in the townhouse ceilings from Irene just painted over it. This happened maybe three weeks ago. Some things don't change, apparently.
ReplyDeletePeople keep saying that "this mold has been going on for years and no one did anything" the problem with this is that mold isn't like a plant where you take it away and then its gone. Mold is one of those things that once it happens there are spores forever and you just have to manage moisture so it doesn't have a place to live. That is why Irene and the extremely humid year we have had can legitimately be listed as causes for this excessive mold outbreak.
ReplyDeleteThis is why the school is currently cleaning the dorms AND fixing the HVAC systems AND replacing insulation where it is needed. Just as the EPA says " If there is mold growth in your home, you must clean up the mold and fix the water problem."