Category: – Missouri

Missouri –

When the winter storm Jan. 24-25 blanketed Columbia with more than 5 inches of snow, students living in Searcy and Prunty residence halls on Columbia’s Stephens College campus were left cold after heating in the buildings failed.

By Monday night, Jan. 26, the boiler was seemingly repaired. But the next day, students started reporting odd symptoms, and eventually both dorms were evacuated because of a carbon monoxide leak.

While the faulty equipment has since been replaced, students told the Tribune that Stephens College needs to do more to address poor communication and what they said was an inadequate response leading up to and following the evacuation.

Sophia Frenna, a resident adviser at Searcy Hall, said no warnings or building alarms were triggered at Searcy Hall after the boiler was repaired, but the night of Tuesday, Jan. 27, a fourth-floor resident’s personal carbon monoxide alarm sounded.

“It was low battery and no building alarms were sounding, so they thought it was a mistake of some sort,” said Frenna, who was informed of the alarm.

She said she contacted her bosses but didn’t hear anything back. After her morning classes Wednesday, Jan. 28, she obtained a brand new carbon monoxide detector. The moment she turned it on in her first-floor room, she said, it sounded an alarm.

Frenna said she immediately called security. The person with whom she spoke wasn’t sure what to do so spoke to an adviser, she said, who also was unsure but placed a call to the college facilities team.

“I’ve had carbon monoxide poisoning before, so I assumed it was because of the heat. I turned my heat off, opened my window and grabbed my cat and evacuated the building. I was told they were going to let me know what was going on, but I never got an update,” Frenna said. Stephens College has some pet-friendly residence halls.

She returned to the dorm about 90 minutes later to find a note from facilities about changing the battery in a smoke detector.

About 5 p.m., Frenna turned her heat back on. When the carbon monoxide alarm sounded again, she circumvented Stephens College leadership and called 911.

Students and at least one parent said they appreciated the response that followed from college leaders, including President Shannon Lundeen and Lisa Brescia, interim dean of the Conservatory of the Performing Arts. But they said communication and the response by management of other departments, including security, facilities and even student experience, was lacking.

“The dean showed up when she found out things were happening. She went to the hospital to find students,” Frenna said. “She has truly been a savior, but people in charge of safety, security, student experience and facilities have been entirely unhelpful.”

About four hours after the 911 call was made and students in both Searcy and Prunty halls were displaced — both buildings are serviced by the same boiler — college officials started making arrangements to find students other housing at hotels or on campus. By that time, some students already had made arrangements with friends on their own.

Some students also made their own arrangements to seek medical care, either by walking to a hospital or carpooling. A news release from the Columbia Fire Department said some students had refused transport to hospitals after a medical evaluation onsite.

Students say carbon monoxide detectors were faulty or missing

Frenna and another student who lived in the affected residence halls said it appeared that, up until Thursday, Jan. 29, the buildings either did not have carbon monoxide detectors, or if they did, they were not in working order.

“There’s been no accountability at all,” said Frenna, who thinks an apology and more explanation are due. “This is something (the college) had to have known about. There is no way you can have an entire college campus without carbon monoxide detectors and not know about that. There is just no way that can happen, especially on such a small campus.”

Sarah Salmons, Stephens College’s associate vice president of marketing, said the boiler servicing the two residence halls was removed and replaced with new equipment between Jan. 29-30. Carbon monoxide monitoring equipment also was upgraded and installed by the facilities department and the assistant fire marshal with the Columbia Fire Department, she said.

“We also have trained our residential life staff and security officers on how to monitor sensors and what to do if they go off,” Salmons said in an interview Monday morning, Feb. 2. “We’ve upgraded our portable and commercial-grade carbon monoxide detection equipment and our facilities and security team have spent time training on it over the weekend and are using it to routinely check all campus.”

Students hope for faster campuswide alerts in future

Students continue to hope for better communication plans in the future. A mass notice about the carbon monoxide leak and response efforts was not sent to students until the late evening hours Jan. 28.

“There’s clearly a block somewhere in the middle,” said Addison Haag, who has a work study position in student experience and was working an event at Stamper Commons the evening of Jan. 28 as students started coming in from Searcy and Prunty halls seeking refuge after the evacuation.

Haag said she started making calls and sending messages to “as many group texts [as] I could get my hands on” to notify others.

“The fact that I had to be the one to coordinate — I am just a humble work study for student experience — and the fact that I was getting information faster and out to people than the school which has the ability to mass email or mass notify people was not OK,” Haag said.

Haag also is hopeful the episode will inspire resident life to start conducting drills related to carbon monoxide or fire more regularly.

The Tribune asked about this and Salmons said at this point the college has not yet discussed whether to increase the frequency of drills. She did share other mitigation and responsive work the college has done, both in the Tribune interview and in a news release.

Following the boiler replacement and inspection by the Columbia Fire Marshal, mechanical engineers and State of Missouri, the college was issued an occupancy permit late Saturday, Jan. 31. A notice was sent to students that they could return to the residence hall starting Feb. 2, she said.

“The college is preparing guidance for displaced students on how to submit receipts for expenses incurred during the temporary relocation. Stephens College has stated its intent to ensure students are not financially burdened as a result of the disruption,” a news release noted.

Stephens College response to carbon monoxide leak flawed, students say