The director of resident life and the facilities manager discuss the damages left by the Courtyard and Richardson floods
Richardson and Courtyard residence halls have both had issues with water damage this semester; however, the causes and severity of the damages are quite different.
The Courtyard incident took place in early January, and was caused by a water line break, according to Walter Hardin, facilities manager at Winthrop University.
In the Richardson residence hall, a sprinkler head was damaged, and poured water out into the hall.
The damage in Richardson, which Hardin estimates to be around $20,000, was less significant than that of Courtyard. While Hardin does not know the cost of Courtyard repairs, as it is done through the real estate agency that leases the building to Winthrop, about eighty students had to be removed from the building for the rest of the semester; whereas, no students in Richardson were permanently displaced.
“The problem with courtyard is that unlike richardson, which is made up of concrete and cinder block, Courtyard is made up of sheetrock, and carpet and all of that stuff got wet,” Hardin said.
Hardin said that the repairs to Courtyard will most likely be completed by the end of May, and they will definitely be ready for students to move into for the fall 2018 semester. Casey Tullos, director of residence life, said that the Richardson repairs have already been completed.
“Fortunately for us, the damage to the rooms, took the long weekend, from Friday through Monday, for things to dry out, so students were welcomed back into the space if they chose to come back, because for some students we offered them the choice to stay in their new space that they had been assigned. There isn’t anyone at this point who couldn’t go back to Richardson if they wanted to,” Tullos said.
Tullos and Hardin both credit the minimal damage done to Richardson to Liz Moore, the Residence Life Coordinator for both Richardson and Lee Wicker.
“She immediately mobilized her RAs to not only evacuate everybody from the building, but she got everybody to get their bath towels out and they rolled them in logs and put them underneath everyone’s doors and the elevators,” Hardin said.
Hardin said that the steps Moore took were important, because the last time that there was a sprinkler head that went off in Richardson- about three years ago- water was squeegeed into the elevator shaft, causing damage to the elevator shaft, creating damages that cost $30,000.
“She mobilized her people, she saved the elevators, she saved a lot of people’s personal stuff with quick thinking,” Hardin said.
All of these incidents happened within the first seven months of Tullo’s first year as Director of Residence Life, and she said that she is grateful for how well her staff handled the situation.
“ It has just been an unfortunate series of events, so things that you can’t anticipate, but quite frankly it’s the reality of being responsible for facilities, so unfortunately things break, and people make mistakes and we have accidents that create these kinds of accidents, so yes it has been a very interesting introduction to my first year at Winthrop, I am very fortunate that i have a very experienced team that works for me because they have handled things amazingly well,” Tullos said.
Winthrop is insured through the state of South Carolina, so the damages to Richardson were covered, and the school only had to pay a $5,000 deductible. Courtyard is also insured through the insurance agency that owns it, and the damages are being taken care of through that agency, according to Hardin.
Currently, all students are now in permanent living situations for the rest of the semester.
“Winthrop has one of the most beautiful campuses in the state and we have some really old buildings but we do our best to keep them up because we in facilities management are all about the student experience and we do everything we can within our powers,” Hardin said.
