Point News, 2001 February 6

              St. Mary’s College of Maryland
St. Mary’s campus weekly • 52nd year, No. 12 February 6, 2001 • St. Mary’s City, MD 20686
Lawsuit filed against SMC
Students involved in Guatemala attack fin d College negligent
SHAWN MILLEVILLE
editor-in-chief
Three students filed a lawsuit against the
College on Jan. 12 for what they charged
was negligent care by the College during
their study-abroad trip to Guatemala in
Jan. 1998.
Two graduates and one current fourth-year
student filed the suit in the Prince
George’s County Circuit Court. The at­torney
for the plaintiffs, J. Kenneth
Kruvant, said in an article (“College Sued
Over Attack on Trip”) that appeared in the
Feb. 1 Washington Post that, “We contend
that the College was negligent in properly
planning and executing the trip and expos­ing
the students to foreseeable danger.”
The defendants named in the suit are the
College, the Board of Trustees, College
President Maggie O’Brien, Professor of
anthropology William Roberts, Professor
of Latin American studies Jorge
Rogachevsky, and the former Director of
the study abroad program Mary Spear.
The three plaintiffs are Lila Grisar ’99,
who is seeking $5 million in damages, Julie
Ross ’98, who is seeking $500,000, and
fourth-year Wesley Willoughby, who is
seeking $250,000.
As reported in the Jan. 27, 1998 issue of
The Point News (“Tragedy strikes St.
Mary’s with ambush of study tour”), the
students were traveling along Guatemala’s
Pacific Highway when seven men in two
pick-up trucks forced them off the road.
The group was robbed and five of the
female students were raped. Three men
were found guilty of the rapes in 1999 in
Guatemala and each are serving a 28-year
prison sentence.
In a statement sent to the entire College
community through an e-mail, O’Brien said,
“The events that the group lived through in
Guatemala would be doubly tragic if they
served to increase, rather than minimize, that
danger. We took every prudent safety pre­caution,
both before and after the attack, and
are confident that the College was not neg­ligent
in its duties to anyone on the trip; our
hearts continue to go out to the victims of
these terrible crimes.”
In the aforementioned Point News article,
O’Brien said the incident [was] a freak
occurrence, [and argued] that proper safety
Guest Chefjohn Magin Live—BAM!!
Chef Tommy Graziano shows third-year student Kristin Effland how to
cut vegtables while Chef John Magin looks on. Magin and Graziano
came from Charley’s Restaraunt in Richmond, Virginia, to show
students how to make an easy yet tasty dinner.
photo courtesy Colleen Carpinelli
precautions were followed. Since the state­ment,
all College officials have been refer­ring
the press to Susan Grisser, of the
Attorney General’s Office, and Marc Apter,
of the Office of Media and Public Relations.
Only current fourth-year students were
around when the incident occurred, and
they were only first-year students then.
The student response back in 1998, as
reported by The Point News, had more to
do with a dislike for the major press all
over the campus. The presence of the
media in response to the lawsuit has not
been felt on campus.
Mold found in Calvert; cleanup a work in progress
JEREMY CHISHOLM
managing editor
Nobody likes mold. It looks
nasty and it smells worse. But
perhaps the most pernicious qual­ity
of mold is that it keeps coming
backs. Mold, it seems, is a per­sistent
sneak.
Last fall, the administration
began a project to renovate part
of the Calvert basement. After
new sheetrock was installed, mold
began to grow on it within a
week. As mold is not supposed
to grow on new sheetrock, con­tractors
were tipped off that there
was a mold problem in Calvert.
Subsequent investigation revealed
the presence of mold in the walls,
floor, and some ceiling tiles.
College Vice President for Busi­ness
and Finance Lori
Stickelmaier then decided to com­mission
a study of the problem.
LAW Engineering and Environ­mental
Services, Inc., was hired
to perform a study of several
locations in and around Calvert,
as well as in Schaefer Hall. Tech­nicians
from this firm took “bulk”
samples from the floor and walls
of Room 38, Room 17, and di­rectly
outside of Room 38 in
Calvert. They also conducted air
sampling tests at these sites.
In a letter dated October 3,
2000, the senior consultants of
LAW Engineering submitted their
report and a compilation of their
findings. In this report, they
outlined the scope of the study
they had conducted (collection
of “bulk” and “airborne” samples
from in and around Calvert Hall),
and the methods by which they
conducted their surveys. They
also referenced their practices
with established industry stan­dards,
and briefly discussed the
specific methods that they em­ployed
to perform the tests.
The report also included a defi­nition
of biologically derived air­borne
contaminants, and a state­ment
about acceptable levels of
such contaminants. According
to LAW Engineering, and con­firmed
by Norm Umberger, Col­lege
Compliance Officer, there
are no set EPA guidelines for
“acceptable exposures to
bioaerosols”(biologically pro­duced
junk in the air, e.g. floating
mold particles). This leaves little
guidance for the College as it
prepares to deal with the mold
issue. According to Mr.
Umberger, this is one time where
a little more guidance from the
state would be useful. The Col­lege
now has to choose what
guideline to use to judge its ac­tions,
as there is disagreement
among experts as to what safe
levels of exposure really are.
Stickelmaier stated at a meeting
held January 30, 2001, that the
College “will consider it a viola­tion
if [the mold level] is higher
inside than outside [of Calvert].”
The report gave a breakdown
of the types of mold and bacteria
found in both bulk and airborne
samples, and their relative levels
within samples. The mold cultur­ing
and analysis was conducted
for LAW Engineering by PathCon
Laboratories. Sixteen different
types of fungi were found in air
samples, and over 14 types of
bacteria and fungi were found in
the bulk samples. PathCon la­beled
the samples of bacteria
found in five of six bulk samples
as “High,” and “Low” in the sixth;
fungi levels were labeled “High”
in five of six bulk samples and
“Moderate” in the sixth.
Airborne bio-pathogens are
measured in units known as
Colony Forming Units (CFUs)
per cubic meter of air (m3). Air­borne
samples were taken from
Calvert rooms 38 and 17, and
from directly outside room 38
(for use as a reference point). In
room 38, PathCon found a total
concentration of 6066 CFUs/m3.
In room 17, the concentration
was 2886 CFUs/m3. The outside
reference site recorded a con­centration
of 4240 CFUs/m3. This
means that the air in room 38 had
a level of contamination signifi­cantly
higher than that of the
outside air, while the air in room
17 did not. Experts say that
between 500-1000 colony CFUs/
m3 is a normal level for most
airborne bio-pathogens. By this
standard, the air in room 38 has
levels of airborne contamination
above those considered normal.
LAW Engineering included sev­eral
brief and general recommen­dations
in their report. They first
recommended that leaks in Calvert
be fixed, so as to prevent further
water accumulation (which can
lead to mold growth). They also
recommended that another study
be completed, to gather more
detailed information, and infor­mation
from other parts of the
building.
The College responded to these
suggestions by having all reported
leaks in Calvert fixed. As of the
time this went to press, Umberger
reported that there were no out­standing
work orders for leaks in
Calvert Hall. The College also
commissioned another study, this
time by air quality experts RK
Occupational and Environmental
Analysis, Inc.
RK conducted a survey in
Calvert on December 19; the re­sults
of this study were sched­uled
to arrive on Monday, Febru­ary
5, the day before this issue
hits the newsstand. After their
preliminary inspection, RK re­ported
that they did not detect
any “immediate hazards” in Calvert
Hall, but did recommend that the
most heavily contaminated (and
unoccupied) section of Calvert
basement be partitioned off until
further cleanup and analysis could
be conducted. RK also included
a survey, to be administered by
the administration, to gather in­formation
from employees about
“symptoms and concerns” which
they may have after working in
the building.
The College has already com­missioned
a second study by RK,
which will be conducted this week.
This study will take samples from
several rooms in Calvert, includ­ing
rooms on the second and
Continued on MOLD,
page 2.
In s id e
NEWS................................................................... 2
FEATURES.........................................................3
A&E.......................................................................4
OPINION........................................................ 5-7
SPORTS............................................................... 8
£
Single O n
V alentine’s D ay?
Staff writer Leslie Fields ex­pounds
on the SMC student opin­ion
of this romantic holiday.Page
three.
D errick B ell
B ook R eview
A review of one of the books
by this year’s Carter G.
Woodson lecturer. Page four.
I
£
L iberals F ight
B ack
Readers respond to last
week's letter from a conserva­tive.
Page eight.