The image posted outside of the condemned dorms, showing what the renovated dorms are set to look like once their finished. Photo credit: Cam Silver.
Over the summer, students at Quinnipiac received new housing assignments this fall due to findings of asbestos in dorms that are currently being renovated.
Students expected to live in dorms Larson, Perlroth, and Troup received an email over the summer stating that these dorms are going to be closed for the 2019-20 school year and that students are being moved to different dorms. Some students were able to stay with the friends they chose to live with while others became separated.
“When I first received the email, I was incredibly upset because my group of suitemates was split up and placed on York Hill, which is an entirely different campus.” said Kassidy Berger sophomore at Quinnipiac.
The students assigned to Crescent received upgraded parking permits that allow them to park in the York Hill parking garage at any time and Hilltop parking lot as well from 6 a.m. to midnight. Students were also credited $1,000 toward their housing bill for next year, but even with these perks the school gave these students, it is still an adjustment living on a different campus.
“The main difference with my current living situation is that I need to drive down to class everyday. It is incredibly frustrating to have to deal with parking.” said Berger.
Part of Bobcat way has been shut down at different times throughout the past few months in order to move materials and tools into the dorms. Photo credit: Cam Silver.
According to Robert Labulis, Hamden Building Official, Quinnipiac applied for permits to install air conditioning in the dorms. The University’s Connecticut-licensed asbestos consultant inspected the buildings and determined that certain material in the buildings that would be disturbed contained asbestos. He is also on campus inspecting the buildings twice a week to make sure the renovations are progressing as planned.
Labulis knew parents were concerned with students’ health regarding the findings of asbestos.
“Unless students were chewing on the walls then their health in the buildings were not at risk,” said Labulis.
The university could have painted over the walls and carpet the floor and would not have to worry about the asbestos but Sal Filardi the Vice President for facilities and capital planning did not want to do that.
The backside of the condemned dorms, showing how much of the campus has been blocked off due to the asbestos. Photo credit: Cam Silver.
“Most of the time you can paint over a wall and that’s fine or plywood over a floor and put carpet down, said Sal Filardi. “The fact that there’s asbestos tile underneath the plywood it’s fine.” “We decided as a university to remove all of the asbestos.”
If they took the route to paint over the walls or carpet down the floors then the dorms would have been open this school year.
Filardi and Labulis both state that the buildings will be ready for the 2020-2021 year with air conditioning and will be asbestos-free.