Meg Itoh
News Editor
Lewis House suffered damage to the first floor of the house on Jan. 30 and the house is currently under repair. For the duration of construction, house members have been moved to residence halls across campus.
“The floor joists supporting the first floor of the house were damaged, including several important ones,” said Haley Noel Austin ’16, a resident of Lewis House. “As a result of the joists breaking, the floor in the front living room sunk in.”
According to Doug Laditka, associate vice president for Facilities Management and Development, the cause for damage at Lewis House was “very clearly a major force exerted on the floor in the living room that caused 10 2×8” floor joists to break and the floor to sag.”
Austin claimed that this is not the first time Lewis’ floor has experienced damage. “Before the recent break, the joists had been reinforced. Additionally there are patches of dry rot visible on the joists, especially up in the breaks of the joists,” she said.
To the best of Austin’s knowledge, there are no regular check-ups scheduled for houses. “I know they work on a work order system, so as issues are reported they are addressed. We didn’t know the extent of the dry rot, only that there had been a past repair – so we didn’t submit a work order,” she said.
Repairs are expected to take several weeks. “We will need to remove plumbing, duct work and electrical equipment to make the necessary repairs to the structure,” said Laditka. “Once the structural repairs are complete, the electrical, plumbing and HVAC equipment will be put back into place and the house will be available for students.”
Austin said residents of Lewis House have been told that the repair should take 10 business days.
Members of the program house have been relocated all over campus.
“If there is an issue where students cannot be living in a space because of safety concerns we give them a temporary space. We try to use as many open spaces, those without current occupants, as we can,” said Nathan Fein, director of residence life.
“It is not always possible to do that, but we try and make sure there is a space available for those individuals,” he said.
“We then let the residents know what their temporary space is and give them two-three days to relocate there. We try and give them a tentative timeline when they can return back to the space as soon as we have it,” said Fein. “AVP Laditka has been working with his staff if the residents need to get back in the space when the work is getting done. They can work with the facilities staff to get back into the space to retrieve items,” he said.
Fein explained that residents would be able to return to the house as soon as Facilities determines that the space is safe for return.
“Members have been moved to residence halls across campus, some in singles but most have been moved into doubles with random roommates. All in all, we’ve been relocated to Holden Hall, Luce Hall, Douglass Hall and Bissman Hall,” said Austin.
“[The relocation] means the safe space which Brothers of Diversity facilitates in Lewis House has been [tempoarily] disbanded,” she said.