Issue 12

Page 1

Vol. 4, Issue 12 May 3, 2013 VIEWPOINTS Athletes come out into limelight My Big Fat Gay Column returns with a new writer, a new perspective. page 11

ENTERTAINMENT Student artist feature D.J. Joe Whalen mixes live music with the stage name Bonesaw at parties on & off campus. page 15

THE QUICKIE Club spotlight The Entrepreneurship Club gives members advice and action plans for future business endeavors. page 18

HEALTH & FITNESS Mosquito invasion Unprecedented rainfall brings giant mosquitoes; expected to invade Florida this summer. page 19

SPORTS End-of-the-year awards Check out The Current’s 2013 sports awards selected by the sports team. page 24

photo by Nika Ostby President Eastman in his campus office with dogs Emma, left, and Beau.

Playing the breaks: birdies and bogeys with President Eastman By Greg Reilly Web Editor

P

resident Donald Eastman and I load our clubs onto a golf cart. Sans the signature bow tie, Eastman is wearing a light blue polo shirt, a white hat with the Vinoy Club logo, white Bermuda shorts with a brown belt and white and brown golf shoes to match. He wants to hit a few warm-up shots on the range across the road, but Emeritus Professor Ster-

ling Watson and his friend Dean Jollay are about to tee off the first hole and have invited us to join. Eastman has known Watson since they attended the University of Florida together, where Eastman earned his Ph.D. in English. They play together frequently, which is clear when Watson shows Eastman a drill he’s been working on to help his driving before we tee off, and Eastman comes back with a little trash talk. “Let’s see if it works,” he says to Watson and steps onto the tee box. One of the great aspects of a small liberal arts col-

lege like Eckerd is that students have the opportunity to develop relationships with their faculty and administrators. At my previous school, the College of Charleston, I only saw the president once, and it was at Convocation on the third day of my freshman year. I don’t even remember his name. Unlike students at schools such as Charleston, Eckerd students have the opportunity to interact with our president pretty frequently, whether eatSee EASTMAN, page 5

Vent conditions alarm residents in legacy dorms By Alexandra Roberts Viewpoints Editor

Notice: all areas photographed have been reported to facilities for maintenance. When Freshmen Matt Sevegny and Elijah Marchese started experiencing symptoms of sore throats, respiratory issues and allergy-like reactions, they suspected mold could be growing in their Gamma Freeman room. They alerted Facilities April 18, and workmen arrived quickly. Freeman residential advisor Grace Whitmore, a junior, also came to the room to see the results. “They reached in, they

took out what was in there and they showed us,” said Whitmore. Though Sevegny and Marchese pointed out dark areas as mold, facilities said otherwise. “They kept saying, ‘it’s just dust, it’s just dust, there’s no way it’s mold—there’s no way for moisture to get into the system,’” said Sevegny. “We might get a filter next year depending on what they do.” Before replacing the vent cover, facilities had it sandblasted. Doug Ault, director of facilities management, offered in response, “We will be doing a cleaning of all the branch lines into the individual rooms [in Gamma] because our inspection showed that most of the debris was from the over-spray of

photo by Alexandra Roberts Evidence of growth in samples taken from vent in Gamma Freeman 14. Please Recycle

INDEX:

NEWS 2-8

VIEWPOINTS 9-14

the ceiling finish that was done last year,” said Ault. “We believe this will remove a major portion of the dust and particulates. This work will be accomplished by our inhouse staff as part of the summer cleaning. We will conduct a similar inspection of the other traditional dorms as we do the turnover after graduation and clean as necessary.” According to Chris Brennan, vice president for business and finance, Ault did not ask an environmental group to take a look at the Freeman findings because the area was dry— meaning the material was just dust. Facilities offered to vacuum behind the vent cover, but Sevegny and Marchese declined. To vacuum any room, the room needs to be cleared or covered in plastic. The vacuuming process can release whatever particles from the vents into the air and the room will need another surface clean. The vacuums can only reach 3-4 feet back into the vent, and only an outside contractor can go farther back into the main feeds. According to Bill McKenna, the director of campus planning and construction, “The ducts were last cleaned by an outside contractor about 5 or 6 years ago and, unless issues are noted during inspections, are done about every 10-years,” said McKenna. Vent covers are wiped down as a part of the surface clean each summer, confirmed Ault. Sevegny took samples from the

ENTERTAINMENT 15-17 THE QUICKIE

18

vent in Gamma Freeman 14, two rooms down from theirs, to confirm there was no presence of mold. Associate Professor of Biology and researcher of fungal genetics, Steven Denison, tested the samples. Before the test, Denison looked at some of the material from the vents under a microscope and saw “what could have possibly been fungus.” Sevegny responded to Denison’s evaluation of the sample. “Yeah, they described it as insulation, skin, hair—” and before he could respond, Denison interjected, “Ew, gross.” He made some media used to grow fungi and poured some plates to inoculate with the material. Three plates were inoculated with material from vents. After four days, one of those plates had very little growth and two had a lot of growth—many small fungal colonies, according to Denison. A plate that was poured at the same time, but not inoculated, had no growth. One plate that was not inoculated but exposed to the air in the lab briefly had a few colonies. Taken altogether, this suggests some—but probably not all—of the growth on the two plates that had a lot of growth was due to fungal material from the site of sample collection, according to Denison. There seemed to be predominantly two types of colonies on the plates—green and blue/green—indicating two predominant species. They could be Penicillium or Asper-

gillus species, according to Denison. “The results suggest that having a company repeat the sampling and identify the fungus might be worthwhile,” said Denison. To draw any conclusive results, Denison would want to repeat the experiment. Many other students have also reported ill symptoms possibly associated with mold in their air vents. The room above Sevegny and Marchese in Freeman also requested to have their vent cleaned. “My vent is disgusting,” said Freshman Sam Bell. “I’m prone to allergies anyways so I think it’s a bad situation. You can see the mold on my vents and clearly there should not be mold on my vents…unless that’s dust.” Whitmore added, “Even if that isn’t mold, it’s still disgusting that that’s your vent and that’s what you’re breathing in every day.” The problem is not isolated to Freeman. Beta Benedict RA Travis Tyler reported several issues to maintenance this year. “Benedict had mold growing on the hallway walls, ceiling and bathroom that was removed with bleach at the beginning of the year,” said Senior Tyler. “Facilities cleaned it because I put a request in. No one confirmed it was mold, except I can only assume it was because they responded to it immediately. I also had residents complain that black and green spots were growing with hair,” said Tyler.

HEALTH & FITNESS 19-20 SPORTS 21-24

See VENTS, page 6 The Current is a free, biweekly student newspaper produced at Eckerd College. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writers.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.