Kaleb Lay
Staff Writer
The University of Wyoming is continuing to remove the carcinogen asbestos from buildings on the Laramie campus, disrupting daily goings-on and prompting health concerns from some faculty and students.
One example of UW’s asbestos abatement work can be found in Ross Hall, home of departments such as statistics, communications and journalism, religion and philosophy and others. Asbestos was first discovered in Ross Hall in the form of a cracked flooring tile several years ago.
“Our department has been doing this for the past three years, and doing it kind of in piecemeal,” said Communications and Journalism department chair Cindy Price-Schultz. “They’ve been doing parts of the building, and it’s been needed to be done for the past several years.”
Asbestos is a fire-retardant building material which, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is known to cause respiratory illnesses such as mesothelioma and lung cancer when inhaled. Damaged materials containing asbestos, such as flooring tiles, are a possible source of airborne asbestos.
Price-Shultz said the risk to students and faculty is minimal and that “it is very unlikely” that Ross Hall is contaminated because of the removal. Nonetheless, some on campus have expressed their concerns, both about the risk of exposure and about UW’s handling of the matter at large.
While UW provided funding for the abatement in Ross Hall, Price-Schultz said the Communications and Journalism department itself has picked up the bill for the replacement flooring. She said her department was lucky to be able to do so, but that other departments may have difficulty.
“It’s entirely possible that other departments didn’t have that in their budget,” said Price-Schultz. “We did have it in our budget, that’s why we had to do it over three years. They may say ‘hey, that wasn’t in our budget and now it’s $20,000, where are we going to get $20,000?’”
Price-Schultz declined to comment on whether this is a fair practice, but there are those on campus who believe that this decision speaks to larger issues in the way UW operates.
“It’s a symptom of the whole rotten apple that the University’s gotten themselves into,” said Lindsey Mergelman, an SMTC office staffer and Staff Senator who works in Wyoming Hall. She has been openly critical of UW’s financial decisions and treatment of faculty, staff and students.
Wyoming Hall also contains asbestos and is expected to be demolished to make room for new residence halls, though Mergelman said she opposes such a move.
“Yes, this building is filled with asbestos,” Mergelman said. “We know that. But it’s all contained. It’s been remodeled like they did with the Classroom Building. It has been remediated down to the bare bones.” She added that to tear down historic Wyoming Hall would be “a tragic waste.”
While the risk of being exposed to asbestos is minimal, the removal of this toxic substance has woven itself into a complex and difficult debate over how UW is handling the upkeep of its current buildings as well as the construction of new facilities.
The Branding Iron has reached out to members of UW Operations for comment; none have responded but are encouraged to do so as this story develops.
