Council would give frosh a voice

Mayor stays in to talk to citizens

By Brandon Moeller
Daily Cougar Staff

A pipe burst Monday in Science and Research II, causing employees to vacate and classes to be postponed as raw sewage leaked in the first floor.

"Did you see that movie Volcano?" one staff member asked. "We were looking at the floor and it was like lava flowing."

Although fecal matter flowed into offices and part of the library, Associate Vice President for Administration John Martin said it would not cause any health or safety problems.

However, the smell and fear of contamination did drive some people to leave the building.

"The majority of the smell is related to some animal feed -- barley, hops -- like when dog food gets wet," Martin said.

Industrial-sized fans were wheeled in to alleviate the smell, and cleanup was still under way in an elevator shaft Tuesday afternoon. The carpet damaged by the pipe breaking will not be replaced, prompting some staff members to worry that bacteria would still be there no matter how much the floors are cleaned.

However, Martin assured that the carpet would be safe.

"It would be a different matter if the carpet had padding, but this one is glued to the floor," he said.

A cellular biology lab was one of the few classes canceled because of the broken pipe.

"It's good because we got to go home early," post-baccalaureate biology student Chris Deramo said. "We're going to have to make up the lab. It was canceled because the lab we were going to do couldn't be exposed to the bacteria emitted from the broken pipe."