Recent winter weather caused the closure of OCU from Feb. 2 to Feb. 4. During that time, the ceiling collapsed in Walker Center 114, an office used by Diana Haslett, Artist-in-Residence and Multimedia Studio Manager for the Mass Communications department. Due to the school’s closure, the extensive damage was not discovered until days after the collapse occurred.
Dr. Beth Adele the Director and Assistant Professor of Mass Communications, said the damage was limited to WC114, and no other areas of the building saw such damage.
“Currently, the main impact is on our valuable artist-in-residence, Diana Haslett,” Dr. Adele said. “She is extremely resilient and resourceful. Ms. Haslett, the department, and Petree College of Arts & Sciences are ensuring our students are not negatively impacted by this damage.”
According to Haslett, she discovered the fallen ceiling upon arriving at her office Monday morning, Feb. 7. “I unlocked my office to find a portion of a ceiling tile had collapsed onto my desk and the water pipe from the ceiling was dripping onto my desk and the surrounding floor,” Haslett said.
Though the exact time of the ceiling’s collapse is unknown, Haslett said that from the amount water present, the leak from the ceiling had been actively occurring for several days.
“My desk and surrounding floor area were completely saturated with water,” Haslett said. “The desk had to be taken out of my office as the water damage was so prevalent it can no longer be used.”
Haslett also described the damage to equipment and property, the main damage having occurred to a monitor on the desk, a keyboard, and new shotgun microphones. Haslett suspects the keyboard will need to be replaced, but said after drying the microphones with towels and placing them close to a space heater, they worked.
“Thankfully, I had my laptop at home so I could work over the break, so it was undamaged,” Haslett said.
At the time this story was written university officials had not yet concluded the cause of the damage, but they did suspected that the winter storm contributed to the damage. Dr. Adele explained that while it has not been concluded whether or not the storm caused the damage, the facilities department is currently investigating the situation.
While fans run in WC114 to dry the carpet, Haslett relocated to work in the television studio’s control room.
“The office is being dried and any damaged furniture, supplies, and equipment will be replaced,” Adele said. “The facilities department should be able to devise a plan to resolve the damage and hopefully prevent future incidents.”
Haslett has returned to her office.
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