A leak in the fifth-floor bathroom resulted in flooding on all floors of the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development building Thursday, causing Friday classes to be relocated.
Boston University Facilities and contractors addressed the damage on Friday and over the weekend, BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email.
BU Facilities was authorized by BU Environmental Health & Safety to patch up and repaint almost all the spaces impacted by the flooding, Riley wrote. Additional repairs will be scheduled over winter break.
While some class disruptions were anticipated, most classrooms are now usable, and upcoming events in the building are expected to be held as planned.
Peiran “Iris” Chen, a sophomore in Wheelock, had two classes relocated on Friday due to the flooding. Chen said she was “disappointed” by the relocation, but that it was “unavoidable” because the leak was unexpected.
Chen had one class relocated to the Kenmore Classroom Building, and another class relocated to the College of Arts and Sciences basement. Chen said the classroom size in KCB affected the class discussion.
“The classroom spaces [in KCB] are a little bit bigger than the more compact, nuclear classrooms in Wheelock,” Chen said. “The small group discussions went a little bit separated. It was not as nuclear and engaging as it used to be.”
Chen said she has 15 minutes between the two classes, so she had to run from KCB to CAS, which was “tough” due to the weather.
Similarly, Gracy Szewc, a sophomore in CAS and Wheelock, has a class that was relocated from Wheelock to CAS. The class typically consists of partner and small group discussions, but Szewc said this was made difficult by the “movie theater” style seat arrangement in the classroom.
“It was kind of hard to do that because we were just in rows, or some people were in single seats,” Szewc said.
Although Szewc’s class was held in its original Wheelock classroom today, efforts to repair the damage to the building presented other disruptions.
During a class exam on Monday, Szewc said she found it difficult to focus because workers outside the classroom were “having to talk over each other and yell because the fans were so loud.” She said her professor had to step out and notify the workers her students were taking an exam.
Despite Chen and Szewc’s experiences, Wheelock Senior Lecturer Rob Martinelle saw a positive to the relocations.
“My discussion section breakout rooms, which are normally held in Wheelock, were simply relocated to classrooms in the Kenmore [Classroom] Building, which is actually where my main lecture is held,” Martinelle wrote in an email. “In essence, the flood made things easier for my class that day.”
