Photo courtesy of Sophia Angele-Kuehn.
Gas leak? What gas leak? After numerous complaints regarding the smell of gas, Harkness House closed on Wednesday, October 2nd while the New London Fire Department, Eversource (the gas utility company), Facilities Management, and Campus Safety began resolving the issue. Thankfully, students were able to re-enter the dorm that evening, and the smell was gone. Facilities reports that repairs have been made and the line was pressure tested “ensuring operation safety before gas service was restored to Harkness and Jane Addams.” However, many students remain unaware of the incident and some have expressed confusion and dissatisfaction with how the college handled the situation.
A few Harkness residents returned from Fall Break early on Monday, September 30th. Residents Maddie Taylor ‘22 and Natalie Solari ‘22 mentioned encountering a weird smell but attributed it to the age of the building and the “smell” it usually has. Sohan Mewada ’22 also returned on Monday and was aware of an unusual smell, but “wasn’t too shocked about it” and also thought it to be the building itself. None of these Harkness residents recalled the smell of gas prior to fall break. Mewada added that after his return it smelled more like gas everyday despite opening windows. Some students were accompanied by their parents upon their return to campus, and they too noticed the smell. After detecting it, the parent of one Harkness resident felt compelled to contact campus safety on Monday. This student (who would prefer to remain anonymous) reported that their parent called Campus Safety that night around 8 p.m. Although Campus Safety showed up at the dorm, the resident commented that they came and left quickly, without meeting with their parent or addressing the concern. After a second call that same evening Campus Safety “said it was fine” and that there was no gas leak in the building.
After being reported on Monday, the gas leak was not addressed until Wednesday. On the afternoon of October 2nd, a day before students were set to return from break, a staff member of Ruane’s Den called Facilities Services after noticing the smell of (natural) gas. At 5:47 PM the REAL Officesent an email to Harkness residents informing them that the House had been vacated “after the smell of gas was detected” and was inaccessible to students until further notice, but that students were expected to gain re-entry into the house that evening. Kayla Brown (Assistant Director of South Campus and Village Housing) commented that the REAL Office did not receive any responses to the emails regarding Harkness needing to be closed, but did not comment on if any students reached out to them earlier in the week regarding the smell.
Photo courtesy of Sophia Angele-Kuehn
Considering that the smell of gas had been permeating the building for two to three days, the ambiguity of the email was troubling to many residents. Similarly, the follow-up email sent at 6:52 p.m. was a mere two lines stating that “the situation has been addressed and the house has been cleared to re-open.” Neither one mentioned a gas leak, nor did they specify what the issue was. “The email to re-enter wasn’t reassuring, it didn’t exactly feel safe to return,” said Solari. Anon was annoyed by the emails from housing, felt that it was “handled horribly,” that there was no communication with students about safety, and that they were kicked out of the dorm without sufficient reasoning. “I feel like I don’t know what happened,” remarked Taylor. “We don’t even know why they’re digging in front of Harkness right now,” exclaimed Anon, “the hole is getting bigger, we don’t know if it’s fixed.” Facilities briefly referenced the hole, stating that repairs to the sidewalk are underway, but did not elaborate any further. Essentially, students remain in the dark about these repairs and their relation to the gas leak.
For Taylor, Solari, and Mewada the gas leak was a cause for concern both before and after facilities “addressed” it. “I had a test the next morning,” said Mewada, who wondered at the time “am I going to sleep in my room tonight?”
Most students expressed concern regarding access to their room. After communicating with Brown, she detailed that “in the event of a prolonged need to have a building evacuated we would work to assign students to current vacancies across campus, local hotel partnerships… we would work with safety authorities to have students safely access items they would need for the duration of a move.” Even so, Harkness residents wish there had been more reassurance and more details about how the problem was, or will be, fixed.
Most alarming are the health and safety concerns surrounding this incident. Prolonged exposure to gas leaks can have effects on the brain. Gas can begin to emit carbon monoxide which in low amounts causes headaches and nausea. Mewada mentioned that he felt more fatigued than usual and had been experiencing headaches, but was unsure if this was due to the gas. “After the situation, I was very wary,” said Taylor, who questioned the existence of fire escapes on the fourth floor and began identifying them for future reference. Anon heavily critiqued the communication (or lack thereof) with students about safety and conveyed a persisting frustration. “I wish they had taken the situation more seriously, even a potential gas leak is serious.” After a great amount of difficulty in contacting them, Facilities responded to questions of concern and noted that both the College and the utility company closely monitor the natural gas used on our campus, and that “the safety of our students is our highest priority.” They stated that if the presence of natural gas is suspected, “you should leave the building or area immediately and call Campus Safety. Campus Safety will then contact the fire department and evacuate the building.” This statement is meant to inform and put the student body at ease, but it is clear that these steps were not taken because the gas was first reported on September 30th and Campus Safety took little to no action. Also didn’t students and parents report to campus safety to no avail?
Overall, the incident left Harkness residents feeling ignored, without a sense of reassurance and without details respecting how the problem was fixed. Once action was finally taken on October 2nd, the leak was fixed in roughly two hours. Even though the leak was handled quickly, a prompt response to the complaints and conveyance of the situation itself to the Harkness residents were not taken care of sufficiently. Along with an improvement in communication, students hope that Connecticut College will take situations posing potential health and safety risks more seriously in the future. •
