Last week, students and staff began to notice an odor in Wilder Hall, the College’s Student Union and the home of dining establishments like the Rathskeller and DeCafé. Each floor, which usually bustles with student life, has cleared out almost completely. The few students inside now hurry through the halls, wearing masks or covering their nose to escape the smell.
It is important to note that Director of Media Relations Andrea Simakis was able to inform the Review based on answers provided by Chief Facilities Officer Kevin Brown that the odor was due to a clogged grease trap related to dining services in the Wilder basement. According to Brown, the odor does not pose a health threat to students or employees who work in the building, and that the issue is currently being addressed. Similarly, an email was sent March 8 to the leaders of student organizations with offices in Wilder about the grease trap leakage. This morning, the Campus Digest addressed the smell in Wilder, saying, “The cause is a plumbing malfunction associated with foodservice operations in the building. To address the issue, all grease recovery devices and lines have been thoroughly cleaned, and system inspections are underway. … There are no health concerns associated with the odor.”
With this being said, the Review’s News Editors reached out to Assistant Vice President and Dean of Residence Life and Auxiliary Services Mark Zeno, Associate Dean of Students Thom Julian, Assistant Director of Campus Safety Tyrone Wicks, and Deputy Chief Facilities Officer Joe Comar, who were all responsive, but could not speak to the cause of the odor.
This Editorial Board wishes to express its concern that the College — through Campus Safety, Facilities Operations, or the Office of the Dean of Students — did or could not make an announcement to the greater Oberlin student body about the cause of the odor. While the board believes that it is the Review’s responsibility to inform students about campus and community news, the fact that multiple administrators could not identify the cause to our editors and because of the time-sensitiveness of this odor being a speculated health concern — as many students originally assumed — we believe that the administration should have stepped up to inform students as soon as possible about the smell. While the Campus Digest announcement today clarified that there is no threat to health, it took a week for the College to relieve students of their concerns. We find this unacceptable.
Wilder is thought to be the center of student life on campus: we eat there, we have rehearsals there, we have organizations stationed there. As students at Oberlin, we deserve to know what’s happening when our normalcy is being disrupted so drastically. Our routine has been changed, from where we go to do homework to where we choose to get lunch. DeCafé and mobile ordering locations like Umami and the Rat — all located in Wilder — have become unattractive to busy students in search of a convenient and quick meal. We should also not only think of students, but also those who are employed at Oberlin and work in Wilder. Students can grab their mobile order container or package from the mailroom and leave the building quickly. Workers don’t have this luxury: they have been working in this unpleasant condition for the past week. Fans have been placed in the hallways, but they are not an effective fix for those who must endure the odor for hours at a time.
The College’s various offices have had issues in the past with openly communicating changes related to student life in the past. For example, the restructuring of the mailroom and the changes to the meal swipe system proved elusive to students — some running out of meal swipes before the end of the semester — despite the Review’s coverage and College announcements. At times, information on these changes gets lost within the lengthy Campus Digest email. This board believes that separate emails detailing specific situations that affect our community are the most effective way to communicate these changes.
As of Thursday, the College has not issued a student-wide statement addressing the condition of Wilder. The result of this is harmful speculation among students that only increases fear and distrust. For example, rumors of a sewage leak and — unrelated to the odor — asbestos exposure have been gracing community social media platforms like YikYak and Instagram. The Editorial Board is concerned about the lack of information the student body has about the odor as the resulting rumors harm the perception of safety for all members of our campus community and sow distrust between students and the administration. We believe that this distrust is unproductive for students and administration alike. With this being said, Oberlin owes students transparency, so that there is no grounds for harmful speculation in the first place.
Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Opinions Editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.
