Paranoia worse than mold

The Issue: ECSU officials tardy responding to leak, mold complaints

Our position: ECSU must act more quickly and openly when problems arise

It was good to hear that Elizabeth City State University officials have finally responded to water leaks and mold smells in the Mickey L. Burnim Fine Arts Center by relocating several classrooms and faculty offices from the building. It was also good to hear ECSU officials say, as they did last week, that health inspections of the Fine Arts Center and G.R. Little Library have taken place and that materials to fix the Fine Arts Center’s leaky roof should be arriving any day now — if they haven’t already — and that repairs should soon be under way.

We are puzzled, however, by the slow-motion manner in which ECSU officials have pursued these actions, and the absolutely ham-handed way they’ve communicated with faculty and students about the problems.

Instead of immediately moving classrooms and faculty offices from the Fine Arts Center once the leaks and mold smells became apparent, ECSU officials sat on their heels and allowed the problems — and student and faculty mistrust of their ability to respond to the problems — to fester. It wasn’t until after students and faculty members complained to this newspaper and other media that health concerns were forcing them to hold classes outside the building and to wear surgical masks while inside that ECSU officials belatedly moved the classrooms and offices.

ECSU officials were also tardy communicating with students and faculty who use the building about when and how the problems would be addressed. Instead of being up-front about a timetable for fixing the buildings, university officials seemed content to keep faculty and students in the dark. Several professors, speaking to The Daily Advance provided their names weren’t used, complained that they had gone to superiors about the leaks and mold smells but hadn’t been told when anything would be done.

Chancellor Willie Gilchrist told The Daily Advance that ECSU trustees approved repairs to the Fine Arts Center in September. But we have to ask: Did anyone bother to advise faculty members and students about it? Apparently not, because none of the students or faculty who spoke with our reporter seemed aware of it.

University officials can begin to make up for their past communication failures on this issue by publicly releasing the results of the health inspections immediately when they become available. Sitting on the results will only exacerbate the perception, already held by a number of students and faculty, that ECSU’s public image is more important to school administrators than their health.

But there is an even bigger problem here to worry about than leaky roofs and moldy walls.

We find it highly disturbing that a large number of ECSU faculty members and students felt they could only talk about the leaks and mold smells if we agreed not to publish their names. The fact that faculty members apparently feared retribution from higher-ups in their departments or the administration for speaking publicly about an obvious health concern should be an eye-opener for anyone who believes a college campus should be a crucible of free speech.

If a college faculty member can’t speak freely about a leaky roof without worrying that they’ll be denied tenure or won’t have their contract renewed; if a college staff member can’t speak freely about the smell of mold because they’re worried they’ll be fired; and if a college student can’t speak freely about his health concerns without worrying that his grades will suffer, then the place where they work and study isn’t a true university, and all the scrubbing and scraping and sanding in the world won’t make it one. The only thing that will is a campus culture that encourages open and honest debate, that isn’t afraid of discussing problems or paranoid about revealing shortcomings.

Just as the Fine Arts Center roof needs fixing, so does ECSU’s campus culture. We urge Chancellor Gilchrist to take the necessary steps to assure ECSU faculty, staff and students that they shouldn’t feel threatened for exercising their free speech rights on any issue.