American Studies Prof. Ashley Williams said a tile fell from the ceiling of New Cabell 168 during her class on Tuesday, April 1 and said the tile had still been on the floor as of Thursday, April 3, but had been pulled away from the chord to which it was attached.
Central Grounds Zone Manager Ryan Taylor said the management team has seen a few ceiling tiles fall in before.
“I think the one that happened this week was the first time a student was almost hit by one,” Taylor said.
Taylor said these issues are rare, and likely due to unfamiliarity with how they should be installed.
“I think some of those ceiling tiles have not been properly reinstalled after some of the above ceiling work for lighting or HVAC,” he said.
The New Cabell ceiling tiles are made differently than those used in other buildings. Occasionally this type of incident will occur elsewhere on grounds. Taylor said tiles can get wet from a leak in a ceiling pipe.
“Most of the ceiling tiles are just compressed paper, so they crumble when they get wet,” he said.
Taylor said there are no safety risks or major ceiling problems in New Cabell.
“These are isolated incidents, and we’ll work with the maintenance crews to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Taylor said. “We need to make sure that everyone who accesses those spaces are properly trained so they stay secure.”
Courtney Lazore, administrative assistant in the Department of Asian Studies, said there had been a couple of issues on her floor of New Cabell.
“It’s mostly just been a couple of tiles down in the classrooms early on,” Lazore said. “I think we had one down in the offices right when we moved in.”
Lazore also said newer rooms had the majority of construction issues.
“The first floor renovation was complete, and that’s the floor I’m on, and [the construction issues were] in some of the classrooms that had been reconstructed,” Lazore said. “[The renovations] were completed, and it had been completely finished, but a couple [tiles] have fallen down.”
Taylor ensured the security of the building in the future.
“My maintenance team and I, and the renovation contractors will be talking about how to properly install these tiles, just to make sure they’re properly secured when work is being done on the ceiling,” he said.
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