American Studies Prof. Ashley Williams said a tile fell from the ceiling of New Cabell 168 during her class Tuesday, April 1. By Thursday, April 3, she said the tile was still on the floor but had been pulled away from the cord to which it was attached.
Central Grounds Zone Manager Ryan Taylor said ceiling tiles have fallen 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 the tiles 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.
Though the New Cabell ceiling tiles are made differently than those used in other buildings, tiles will fall in buildings in other locations around Grounds, Taylor said, particularly when they get wet because of leaks 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 East Asian studies department, said there have 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 said the incident does not present serious risk to 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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