HALIFAX, NS — Increased building closures on Dalhousie’s Studley campus have sparked intrigue and worry from students and staff.
Dalhousie security has issued multiple alerts over the past few months, announcing sudden closures in science buildings, and just as quickly, their re-opening without explanation. Some students have even fainted without reason; administration stating that it would ‘look into the matter.’
While it comes as no surprise that people are fearful for their safety, facilities manager Brendan Mortendale states that these alerts should give people confidence, not concern in the efficacy of the department.
“What people don’t realize is that we recently received funding that has allowed us to get a bit frivolous in our spending,” explained Mortendale while proudly showing off multiple cases of AA batteries. “Most chemical detectors haven’t had working batteries for years — so the beeping of a radon detector going off in a lab, that’s actually good news!” he exclaimed gleefully.
When pressed as to why basic supplies like batteries weren’t purchased, Moore offered that, “when making a budget it’s easy to overlook something like this. You think to yourself ‘radon detectors, they probably go off what — once every ten years?’ Well, we’re learning that it’s a lot more frequent than that.”
By Freyja Beattie