Faculty returned for the new semester only to find that mold had made a surprise appearance in Benton Hall. Facilities Services had to quickly be brought in to deal with the issue as new students were set to return for the first day of school.
After being gone for the summer, a faculty member returned to find regular mold had grown on some items in their office.
Facilities Services were called to test, and confirmed that it was in fact mold. This led to the fourth floor being professionally cleaned and retested. The same procedure was followed after a vacant office on the third floor tested positive as well. There was no mold found in any of the third floor classrooms. However, for precaution, the rooms were cleaned to ensure the safety of students and faculty.
“We didn’t want to bring people back until we knew that the rooms were safe,” said Zach Frank, dean of the School of Applied Studies.
Because the mold was discovered the Friday, Aug. 18 before classes started, there needed to be adjustments to scheduling in terms of where some classrooms would be held. The scheduling department had to find new rooms for classes because the other rooms were unavailable due to cleaning procedures.
“It was unfortunate. I hated that students, faculty and staff were inconvenienced and that students, especially on their first week, were inconvenienced and had their classrooms moved,” Frank said. “But we wanted to make sure that we put people in an environment that was safe. So, we wanted to make sure we had those testing results back before we allowed people to return to those areas.”
Mold has appeared in Benton Hall in the past. The last time this building had mold was a couple of years ago. The Facilities Services team worked to get rid of these issues and deal with them immediately once they were recognized.
“I will say our facilities group has done an excellent job,” Frank said.
Eric Moss, director of Facilities Services, spoke about the typical procedure when running into mold on campus. There are two companies who come in to help.
One company, Titan Environmental, helps test the rooms for mold. The other, Chavez Restoration & Cleaning, are responsible for cleaning the mold from the rooms. After cleaning, the rooms get retested to make sure they are negative for mold.
“This happens in one particular building which is Benton Hall. It’s extremely rare anywhere else. We get help from these companies and they do a good job,” Moss said.
Classes have resumed in Benton Hall and rooms are cleared from mold.
Edited by Aja Carter, Karli Bayliss and LeSha’ Davis
