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When the girls of Thurston 532 woke up Friday, they were expecting a day of classes followed by a busy weekend with friends. They were not anticipating their room to fall apart in front of them.
Freshman Melissa Peters was walking out of the bathroom when she heard a loud crash. Turning around, she saw the bathroom ceiling was caved in and drywall covering the bathroom floor and spilling into the closet, she said.
“It’s really ironic because the night before we were talking with my friend Dan who lives in Guthridge. He asked if our ceiling had crashed down yet, because his had caved in last year,” Peters said. ” At the time we just laughed, but look what happened!”
Peters and her roommates, Adna Pekmezovic and Sinead Casey, called FIXit to report the problem.
“They told us they would send someone over soon, and three hours later they still hadn’t shown up,” Peters said.
When FIXit arrived, a plumber checked the pipes but decided the hole was not a plumbing issue, Peters said.
The next FIXit serviceman cleaned up the big pieces, leaving behind smaller debris and dust, Peters said. No action was taken towards repairing the hole.
Concerned about the health issue, Peters and her roommates asked that FIXit return this week to repair the damage. As of Tuesday, they have had no response to this request and the hole is still open.
Peters and her roommates are not the only Thurston residents to experience a falling ceiling.
Juan Ibanez, associate vice president of facilities, said in an e-mail to The Hatchet that another Thurston room had hole problems this year.
“There was a leak into room 926 last Wednesday caused by a drain line from a roof-mounted cooling tower, which caused damage to portions of one wall,” Ibanez said. “Our crews responded immediately, stopped the leak and initiated a contractor fix to the roof. The roof was fixed last week and a final seal will be applied.”
The Office of Risk Management did not return a request for comment on how many students are injured by their residence hall each year.
