Res hall pipe burst causes flooding

Housing quickly contained the flood while most students were on vacation for the holiday break

A broken toilet caused five dorms in Residence Hall North to take a swim this past winter break – and what caused the toilet to break is still unclear.

On Dec. 23, over winter break, one of the toilets on the first floor of Residence Hall North had a flush valve diaphragm break; this caused the toilet to continuously flush. The nonstop flushing resulted in the toilet's pipe breaking, causing clean water from the toilet to flow into the hallway, a staff member’s apartment and three more suites.

UTD Housing and maintenance were quick to identify the issue, and within a couple of hours, all the water was cleared out. Housing is not aware of any severe property damage and do not know what caused the flush valve diaphragm to break.

Many students in the residence hall had been at home for the holidays, but the few students who were still in the flooded dorms were able to clear objects from the floor and contact others for help.

Agastya Bose, a computer science freshman who lives in one of the affected dorms, said: “I realized that my room was flooded a bit late. I was watching a movie and my feet were kept up, and the thing is, my mom called me after that and when I answered the call, I put my feet down on the floor and realized that the floor was wet. That’s not how the floor is supposed to be!”

Arch Nolen, a neuroscience major who lives in the same wing as Bose, was at her house when this incident occurred. Since Nolen was in Dallas at the time, she was able to come to back to campus when she heard what had happened and make sure that nothing in her room was damaged by the water. Nolen said that the water did not reach her room, but she still returned to make sure that everything was alright.

“I had gotten a call from somebody else and they were like ‘hey, it’s flooding! I don’t know if it’s going to get to your room. You should come and get stuff off your floor.’ a really unique opportunity that we have compared to other universities,” McKitrick said.

So, I came back,” said Nolen.

Caroline Lonneman, geosciences senior and student director of the Eco Hub, said that she was very involved in the creation of the farm space, showing how involved students have been in the development of the Eco Hub.

“We do have a couple plans in the making. We want to find some students who might want to paint the shed with some sort of mural. We’re planning on doing something called Eco Bricks – they are made from recycled materials and you can build structures with them,” said Lonneman. To further students’ learning experiences, the Eco Hub now also houses one of UTD’s apiaries. Scott Rippel, a UTD biology professor, and Christina Thompson, an assistant professor with the Honors College, manage the two apiaries on campus –the one newly located at the Eco Hub, and the other, which remains behind the

Administration building.

“We have the capability of running about 12 hives in each apiary... we tend to like to have between 16-22 hives total to manage. That gives us enough hives to harvest honey and give students the opportunity to look inside the hives,” Rippel said. The bees have been a great addition to the Eco Hub, contributing to the growth of the farmland. One particularly unique advantage, Rippel says, is that these bees serve as an indicator species for what is happening across a community. By studying the honeybees at UTD’s apiaries and their growth or decline, students can understand how other pollinators are interacting with the local environment.

“The apiary gives the beekeeper an opportunity to educate the community about bees and pollination, and the importance and role that bees have in our agricultural system. So, it’s more of an educational opportunity for the community,” said Rippel.

Disruptions to the spring term’s schedule due to the pandemic will not heavily affect students’ abilities to volunteer at the Eco

SEE ECOHUB, PAGE 8