Ahoy, ye scurvy freshmen!

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Ahoy, ye scurvy freshmen!

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Oct. 25th, 2011 at 5:34 PM

So they found mold in two of our dorm buildings halfway through the semester (never mind they've been complaining about it for years - no doubt heads will roll over this, as they did last year, and that wasn't even in the middle of the semester). 350 students had to be relocated last week - some to other housing on campus, some to area homes, but the majority to 3 off-campus motels. Chaos has abounded over all this, of course (students having to move, staff having to handle all this, parents already filing lawsuits), but they just announced a new twist - this weekend they're all moving back to campus, but will be living on a cruise ship, presumably docked in the bay.

I'm not sure whether this is insane or brilliant. I suppose only time will tell, as they anticipate it's going to take the rest of the semester to finish the dorms.

Current Mood: confused

( 21 comments — Comment )

cypherangel

Oct. 25th, 2011 09:57 pm (UTC)

Living on a cruise ship? What can go wrong, really. That sounds pretty awesome. Unless some prankster decided to steer the ship away, of course. :P

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 03:11 am (UTC)

With our kids, you never know. I've discovered our campus is about 80% hippies and 20% douchebags, so we'll see what happens...

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ebenbrooks

Oct. 25th, 2011 10:01 pm (UTC)

A cruise ship? Uh ... yeah, that has the potential to either be truly awesome or truly horrific.

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 03:13 am (UTC)

Exactly my thoughts - it's either the height of genius or the depths of stupidity. New president of the college, new ideas, I guess, although this kind of displacement is almost unprecedented (although apparently there were a few dozen kids that were displaced about 10 years ago when they weren't finished a set of dorms in time for the start of the semester, and I've heard that was equally as fun, just without the health threat - so far at least one student has had to be hospitalized, but thankfully is ok now).

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caitlin_sd

Oct. 25th, 2011 11:38 pm (UTC)

Ok, the cruise ship is new one, even for me. The students will probably love it for the first week or so, then it becomes a pain to shuttle back & forth. Moreso if they have projects that have to remain on campus, in the science labs, for example. It's even more fun when a kid gets really sick or freaks out near the end of the semester & the new protocols for dealing with it don't work the way they're supposed to. (Go on, ask me how I know.)

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 03:08 am (UTC)

Believe it or not, the cruise ship would be closer than the motels - our campus is right on the water (with a nationally-ranked sailing team), but the nearest town is 10 miles away (and with base traffic they were telling the kids to plan on at least 60 minutes commute if they were taking the shuttles back and forth to campus). Welcome to the stix of Maryland.

So, how do you know about those freaked out kids? :) (I'm sure we could swap some interesting tales!)

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caitlin_sd

Oct. 26th, 2011 04:03 am (UTC)

Let's just say I'm glad not to have been working as an officer. While there's a lot of stuff I still won't talk about on line,I'll be more than happy to swap stories in person. ( In the meantime Google "Hampshire Halloween". Nuff said.)

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 05:20 pm (UTC)

Yes, we should sit around the fire at Pennsic. Oh, the fun!

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thespian

Oct. 26th, 2011 12:22 am (UTC)

I WANT TO LIVE THERE.

and I want Isaac to make me drinks in the evening.

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 03:15 am (UTC)

*points index fingers at you and winks*

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thespian

Oct. 26th, 2011 12:33 am (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_High

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 03:21 am (UTC)

Ha! Of course someone did a show about it. :)

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rvrjoe775

Oct. 26th, 2011 02:22 pm (UTC)

Early Ryan Gosling!

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yajaec

Oct. 26th, 2011 02:28 am (UTC)

Mold is a serious issue, I had a friend that died from living in an apt with mold for a couple years without knowing and died at age 26....

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 03:00 am (UTC)

Oh jeez, I'm sorry to hear that. :(

I'm using this experience to convince my mother of the reality of the problem, as we discovered black mold in her air conditioner and want her to get the house tested.

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lherelenfeline

Oct. 26th, 2011 07:37 am (UTC)

Oh dear...

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 05:20 pm (UTC)

Indeed!

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lherelenfeline

Oct. 26th, 2011 05:42 pm (UTC)

So what's going to be happening in the long term?

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 05:49 pm (UTC)

They're expecting to live on the boat for the rest of the semester while the mold remediation happens in the buildings. Will likely mean a lot of internal renovations plus foundation sealing (they've got all kinds of health inspectors and contractors here on campus). Should be settled by the time they come back to class in January. Hopefully they won't find any more in any other buildings! (These are the 2nd and 3rd buildings they've found mold in - a whole slew of housing was renovated summer 2010, and some higher-up types were fired over it, so I can't wait to see what heads will roll here. I think they may have also found spots of mold in a couple of other rooms on campus, but nothing else building-wide.)

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lherelenfeline

Oct. 26th, 2011 05:52 pm (UTC)

Oh man, what a clusterfuck.

Although I would have happily lived on a ship in undergrad rather than commuting an hour each way.

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esprix

Oct. 26th, 2011 06:11 pm (UTC)

Part of the backlash is that, for some students, this is their THIRD move - once just for a weekend for the first remediation attempt, second because the first attempt failed, now third back to campus, plus they'll have a fourth when they get back from winter break. It's stressful, to say the least, but it's also only about 20% of our student body (although it's predominantly freshmen).

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( 21 comments — Comment )

April 2018