Photo: Hot Spot by Brittanyana Pierro
By Miette Deschenes
The beloved hot spots on campus, which had been around for years and reached dangerously high temperatures, were repaired over summer break. Student reactions to the repairs vary wildly. According to William Ward, Associate Vice President of Facilities Services, the repairs have been a long time coming, despite the appearance that they were only fixed as a response to bad press.
The hot spots in question, which were located behind the Costantino Recreation Center (CRC) and dorm building A, were originally repaired five years ago, but had resurfaced as early as 2016. Although they initially went unnoticed by anyone other than students who would walk by those areas, it was eventually brought to the attention of Facilities Services, and it was found that the temperatures had risen dangerously high over time. According to “Distraught Hot Spot a Lot Too Hot,” an article published by DJ Pfeifle in The Cooper Point Journal (CPJ) on Feb. 6, 2019, the temperature of the ground registered at over 160 degrees and the temperature would fluctuate wildly, making it potentially risky for students to sit on the hot spots.
According to Ward, the hot spots were caused by damaged steam pipes underground, and in order to repair them, all hot water and heat in the surrounding dorms would have to be shut off, hence the delay in repairs.
“So we had started planning to do it right after graduation. And they didn’t want to lose the hot water, so at that time, Facility Services with Residential and Dining (RAD) Services, went through and decided that it was going to be the week or something before the start of the new school year,” Ward said.
“So I, as I always do, work in partnership with everybody else, so I turned around and said ‘is this the best time for you?’ Because we don’t want to impact the students but we want to make sure everything is back up before students came. Then we got into it and realized it was a little more complex. Because you never know until you can bust it open and you find out what was going on with the integrity [of the pipes], so we found that the system was compromised and it took a little bit more patching.”
Some students looked at the hot spots as fun, and before they were blocked off, would spend time relaxing on the warm concrete. Others viewed them humorously.
“A few people two years ago actually cooked an egg on the ground,” recalls Amber Fletcher, a senior at Evergreen and Programming Lead at Greeners Planning Activities.
Maddie Lang, a junior at Evergreen, shared with me that it was not uncommon to see people sitting on the ground to warm up or drawing on the hot spots with chalk. However, other students saw them more negatively. A conversation among students on the Evergreen Commons forums showed that some looked at them as a reflection of Evergreen’s lack of funding for repairs.
“The hot spot wasn’t like a magical fun thing, it was more proof that the school has funding problems,” one student wrote in response to a post asking for student opinions.
When I asked Ward if the hot spots were only repaired because of the school’s Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHA) violations, he denied it. In “Structural Issues,” an article published by The Cooper Point Journal on June 5, 2019, Mason Soto and Georgie Fehringer reported on the aforementioned OSHA violations. The violations included forcing employees to work in hazardous conditions, mishandling of chemical spills, lack of training, and exposing employees to asbestos. Ward says that this is unrelated to the delayed repairs of the hot spots, claiming that it was ultimately RAD’s decision to wait to repair them.
“I identified that, as with many other projects, when I first got here [in Oct. 2018] [that] safety, throughout my entire career, has been priority number one so when I went over there and saw the hot spots I mentioned it to everybody, but I had to work with RAD on that, and that was well before the other article had come out, because we identified it before then,” Ward said.
“Now, since it is RAD’s area of responsibility, I could only make recommendations. I saw it one day and it concerned me and being a good partner with RAD, I went over there and said I’m very concerned. Because of their concern about shutting off the hot water and heating in the dorms over there, we decided to keep it up but I don’t know if that ever really got communicated. I didn’t feel that it was my place because I was supporting RAD with that.”
Ricky Haney, a Facilities Services employee, disagreed with Ward’s aforementioned statement. When interviewed by Soto and Fehringer for “Structural Issues,” Haney stated that he was the one who originally brought up the dangers of the hot spots. In the article, he said that he was the one who first began checking the temperature of the hot spots and that he and a few others attempted to repair it, but had to stop due to the excessive amounts of steam. After this, the hot spots were fenced off to prevent students from risking injuries. According to an article from KOMO News, early this September, The Evergreen State College was fined over $135,000 by the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) for safety and OSHA violations. It is unknown at this time if they attempted to appeal this fine.
Despite the possibility that repairs were only done to improve appearances after such bad press, it remains unknown if this is the true motivation. Student employees from RAD could not be contacted in time for publication. At the time of the release of “Structural Issues,” Haney said he felt that the “sudden outward interest in health/safety is clearly a smokescreen [they] are putting out to cover the fact that TESC has been in non-compliance w/OSHA safety & health regulations for many years and on several different fronts.” Ward denied these accusations, insisting that he had planned these repairs since he was hired.
Many students were saddened by the repairs. Despite the risks of coming into contact with such hot surfaces and the dangers of not fixing a damaged pipe, lots of students saw the hot spots as a place to spend time with others and to keep warm in the cold months. Even though the repair of the hot spots means an increase in safety, it feels like a loss to a portion of the student population. In contrast, some students are relieved that the college finally repaired something that has needed to be fixed for a long time, and Ward is glad that a safety concern has been addressed. As always at Evergreen, there is a diverse array of reactions, and it remains to be seen if the situation will be further complicated by the fines the school is facing.
