Hundreds of students at St. Mary's College of Maryland were forced to evacuate their dorms last week, after a health threat was discovered in the ceilings.
College officials detected widespread mold growing along the insulation surrounding air conditioning vents in two of the schools dormitories. In the interest of students' safety, the living areas have been vacated.
School officials believe that the extremely wet conditions brought by Hurricane Irene and the storms that followed have caused this mold infestation.
At least one student fell ill with respiratory problems, a St. Mary's student told News4. The 350 students that lived in the dorms have been temporarily relocated to area hotels. A shuttle bus offers transportation between the campus and the hotels, but the trip takes as long as an hour.
Although some students see off-campus hotel housing as a nice change, college officials say they are working quickly to fix the issue.
"One of the reasons that choose a residential college is so that they don't have to worry about housing and food, and they can concentrate on their studies," college president Joseph Urgo told News4's Jane Watrel. "We want them to return to that."
Cleanup crews are in the two dormitories now. According to Urgo, their work could be finished in three weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment