Students are contending with cold classrooms and pungent odors in Dawson-Loeffler Science and Mathematics Center.
Officials chose to keep the A/C running in the building to mitigate the smell of formaldehyde coming from the cadaver lab.
The cadaver lab is one of the required facilities for the new Physician’s Assistant program, which began in January.
Formaldehyde is a chemical used for the embalming of cadavers. Formaldehyde maintains tissue’s life-like texture and can keep the body preserved for an extended period of time.
Due to student complaints about the smell, officials installed a new ventilation system to remove the smell.
“There was not a system in there when they first brought the cadavers in,” said Mark Clouse, director of facilities. “Part of the problem is that the existing HVAC that was in there is for the old building, so we had to take that room and put its own system in.”
The room now has its own system to keep the smell down. To assure student’s health and to avoid any risks of over exposure to formaldehyde, meters were installed to ensure correct ventilation.
“I have two classes in a classroom in Loeffler back-to-back, so I’m in there for over three hours,” said Ashley Kinard, film production sophomore.
“They keep the air conditioner on all the time because it’s supposed to weaken the smell, but it doesn’t seem to be working so it’s very cold in the classroom.”
The new system will be running this week. Officials hope that once the new system is going, students will only be able to smell the formaldehyde in the cadaver lab, not the rest of the building.
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