Students march for safer dorms

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Students march for safer dorms

St. Augustine's College must clean up mold and respect student

rights, group says

News & Observer - Raleigh,NC

i Mc, Staff Writer

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/499520.html

RALEIGH - About 125 St. Augustine's College students marched to the

State Capitol on Monday, protesting what they described as mold in

their dorm rooms, invasions of their privacy and an unsafe campus

environment.

One student leader at Monday's protest said several students

complained of illness from mold growing in their dormitory.

Affarenee, a sophomore, said there is mold and mildew on the

walls inside Weston Hall and Baker Hall. A third dorm, Boyer Hall,

is infested with roaches and waterbugs, students said.

" They just paint over all the mold and mildew, " Affarenee

said. " Some kids have gotten sick. "

A school official confirmed Monday that one of the dorms did have

mold in 2004 but that it was cleaned out.

According to a 2004 report school officials released Monday, two

species of mold were found in the air supply and air handling vents

of the men's dormitory Boyer Hall by an environmental consultant the

college hired. The molds, Aspergillus, Penicillium and Cladosporium,

can cause respiratory difficulties and skin reactions in people with

allergies or asthma.

The consultant, General Engineering and Environmental of N.C., based

in Research Triangle Park, found that the inner lining of a hot

water tank in Boyer Hall could cause skin irritation to those who

used its water.

The ducts in Boyer Hall were cleaned, and the water tank was

replaced, college spokeswoman Katrina Dix said Monday.

St. Augustine's President Dianne B. Suber said the " mold " students

are concerned about is " mostly mildew. " But according to the

Environmental Protection Agency, mildew, like mold, is a fungus and

can cause health problems.

" We have old buildings. They do get damp, " Suber said.

Last year, the RTP consultant found no evidence of environmental

issues at the co-ed dorm Weston Hall, and determined that the mildew

in the bathrooms and shower areas was the result of hot water and

humidity.

The consultant also inspected the school's fine arts building for

mold when an employee complained of skin rashes after working in a

particular area. Mold was found, but at levels not normally

associated with skin or respiratory irritation, according to General

Engineering and Environmental's report. The college cleaned the

building's air ducts.

St. Augustine's is the second Triangle university in recent years

bedeviled by mold problems. In 2003, two newly built residence halls

at N.C. Central University in Durham were closed after potentially

toxic black mold was found.

The demonstration Monday occurred one day after St. Aug's, a

historically black college with 1,400 students, kicked off its

homecoming week celebrations on campus.

The students -- some clad in black with some carrying signs

demanding change -- began marching off campus near the Emery

Gymnasium about 10:30 a.m. They gathered on a sidewalk in the 1300

block of Oakwood Avenue before marching downtown to the State

Capitol.

As they assembled, leaders who said they were speaking on behalf of

the student body listed other issues that had ignited their

activism. They said they were also concerned about campus safety,

especially after what they described as a gang-related brawl last

year between students and about 20 nonstudent members of the Bloods

street gang.

" Nothing was done about it, " Affarenee said.

Marc Newman, the college's vice president of institutional

advancement and development, said the altercation was not gang-

related, did not involve 20 people and that the campus does not have

a gang problem.

" Why is it anytime there's an altercation between black men, it's a

gang-related fight? " Newman asked. " There's no graffiti here, and no

people walking around in crazy colors, " he added. " When you walk

around this campus, you see nothing dealing with gangs. "

The students also complained about privacy issues. They said campus

police and administrators routinely check their rooms for campus

violations, mainly drugs.

" They are doing drug checks five days a week, three times a day,

morning, noon and night, " said Philip Ativie, a junior business

administration major from andria, Va.

Suber could not confirm or deny the frequency of room checks but

acknowledged the college has stepped up its vigilance to stop the

flow of drugs on campus, partly in response to student complaints

about drugs in the residence halls.

" I think parents would want to know that we are checking rooms to

make the campus a healthy and stable environment, " Suber said.

Affarenee said that, in the past, students have written Suber

letters and filed petitions asking the administration to look into

the unsafe conditions at the dorms.

Some students were not impressed with Monday's protest.

Senior Class President Christal Sims, 23, of Raleigh said positive

changes have occurred on campus since her freshman year.

" We have new computers, new desks, more security, new cafe services

and now, a new residential hall, " Sims said.

Suber watched the demonstrations from the windows of her office in

the Boyer Building.

" There's a little piece of me that's proud and pleased, " Suber said

about the demonstration. " I am a product of the '60s, and I value

being heard. "

(News researcher Lamara -Hackett contributed to this report.)

Staff writer i Mc can be reached at 829-4533 or

tmcdonal@....

News researcher Lamara -Hackett contributed to this report.