{"id":6841,"date":"2024-09-27T20:46:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T20:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=6841"},"modified":"2024-09-27T21:20:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T21:20:21","slug":"fire-hazards-leaks-safety-concerns-abound-in-malone-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2024\/09\/27\/fire-hazards-leaks-safety-concerns-abound-in-malone-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire hazards, leaks, safety concerns abound in Malone Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This article was written by Tropolitan Editor-in-Chief Emily Mosier. The original article can be found here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fine arts students at Troy University find their home in one of the oldest buildings on campus: Malone Hall. These students, dedicated to passions built on beauty and precision, study each day in a building that is falling apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, a ceiling tile fell during a class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all jumped in surprise and looked over to see a pile of dust and debris off to the side,\u201d said senior Hannah Helms, a graphic design major from Troy. \u201cIt was the old, rotting ceiling tile we had initially voiced our concerns about the first day of class. \u201cI think the saddest part of the ceiling tile falling was that none of us were surprised and went back to talking quickly after.\u201d Every rain brings disaster to Malone Hall, flooding the courtyard and pooling on the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside, there are dozens of missing ceiling tiles \u2013 removed because of water damage turning them into hazards. Dozens more are water stained. Buckets and trash cans are positioned in most rooms to catch leaks. Some of the missing tiles reveal electrical wiring \u2013 cords hang in loops from the ceiling \u2013 and water drips directly onto them. During the rainy season this semester, a trash can below exposed wires collected almost a foot of rain. The leaks in Malone Hall dictate how faculty layout their rooms and how they store thousands of dollars of equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s visible water damage inside the LED lights. Carpets are stained, and some are perpetually wet. The tiled flooring is cracked and broken. There\u2019s peeling paint and cracks between the wall and the floor. There are exposed air ducts with visible patches of adhesive \u2013 a flex-seal can sits not too far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Countless ceiling and wall marks look suspiciously like mold. Students spread rumors of having seen mushrooms growing in the theater black box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m unclear on whether there\u2019s mold or not,\u201d said Greg Skaggs, department chair for art and design. \u201cI physically see the mold, but I don\u2019t know to the extent of whether it\u2019s dangerous or not dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAir tests are not arbitrarily done on buildings, and I have no records,\u201d said Robert Burkey, the executive director of facility operations, when asked if Malone Hall had ever been tested for mold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird nests can be found wedged above doorways and in the crooks of the stairwell. The ground floor has no working water fountains and no eye wash station \u2013 despite the presence of classrooms dedicated to woodworking and welding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside, rain gutters and cords hang off the roof. A green film covers the windows. A black mark obscures the lettering that spells \u201cMalone Hall.\u201d Yellow weeds are growing visibly from the roof. Sandbags surround the outsides of doors to prevent flooding from seeping into classrooms. A concrete walkway is so buried by debris that it appears to be a dirt path. The occasional snake can be spotted slithering into a bush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberto Juarez, a senior graphic design major from Troy, is a student worker in Malone. There are five leaks in his office alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bucket usually stays there and is emptied every time it rains,\u201d Juarez said. \u201cI\u2019m just disappointed in how the university appreciates the arts but overpasses the condition of our building.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skaggs said Malone Hall has had problems since he started working for Troy University in 2005 \u2013 almost 20 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is an emotional gut check when we\u2019ve had a lot of rain, and that\u2019s what happened [last] Monday,\u201d Skaggs said. \u201cI have to spend my day documenting all the leaks and making sure we submit the tickets for the rooms that have leaks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe building costs me time \u2013 time I could be spending as an administrator or with students or on my classes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to several students and staff, when the AC stops working, the air begins to smell and becomes too stale to breathe. Professors have to cancel class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Michael Thrasher, the dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, said the university has been aware of \u201ccertain deficiencies\u201d in Malone Hall for years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a front-burner issue for me,\u201d Thrasher said. \u201cI\u2019ve been over there, and I had concerns about water leaks in close proximity to electrical conduits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I had concerns about just air quality within the building \u2013 whether that be mold, mildew, humidity levels. Very much am concerned about all of this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thrasher said the ideal solution would be to expand the International Art Center so that it can accommodate art and design students, and then expand The Trojan Center Theater and Wright Hall to accommodate theater and dance students. Malone Hall would be demolished, and a performing arts venue would be built in its place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of those things are complex and require quite a lot of planning and quite a lot of financial investment as well, and none of those things are solutions that are immediately implementable,\u201d Thrasher said. \u201cIt will take time and considerable effort on the part of the institution as a whole to make actionable progress on any of those steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would cost more to do the repairs than the facility is worth in the long-term.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, Troy University\u2019s Board of Trustees meeting included a list of six building priorities, expecting to spend $58 million in four years. The list included the Lagoon renovations, which is currently $4 million over budget, and an indoor training facility for athletics. There was no mention of Malone Hall or any of the buildings that would house its departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skaggs emphasized how much students and faculty love Malone Hall, but he said he needs help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMalone has an enduring quality,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving said that, the building itself does hinder our ability to recruit studio students.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During summer orientations, Skaggs does not let students tour Malone Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe issues are very obvious, and I think it visually looks like an unsafe workspace,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not necessarily asking for a new building. We\u2019re asking to just make this building functional and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: This article was written by Tropolitan Editor-in-Chief Emily Mosier. The original article can be found here.<\/p>\n

Fine arts students at Troy University find their home in one of the oldest buildings on campus: Malone Hall. These students, dedicated to passions built on beauty and precision, study each day in a building that is…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":6842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[1795,1276,1794],"topics":[5,17],"class_list":["post-6841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-arts-department-troy-university","tag-malone-hall","tag-troy-university-malone-hall","topics-college-of-communication-and-fine-arts","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6845,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841\/revisions\/6845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6841"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=6841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}