Inquiry launched to investigate Dial

By Nathan Walls
Editor

The beginning phases of an inquiry that will look into the closing of the Dial Building were laid down in the first meeting of the Special Dial Building Committee Thursday, Jan. 22. Dr. Richard Vela was unanimously selected as chair of the five-member faculty team, which also includes Dr. Bonnie Kelley, Paul Van Zandt, Dr. Nancy Barrineau and Dr. Bruce DeHart.

The Special Dial Building Committee was formed after the Nov. 5 Faculty Senate meeting, where the Senate voted by paper ballot 16-4 (1 abstention) in favor of an inquiry.

The group will operate independent of the Faculty Senate and examine mold problems encountered in the Dial Building, which closed on Oct. 17 after 17 types of airborne mold were found, and may look into mold dilemmas of the Sampson-Livermore Library and other buildings on campus.

Their committee charge states that the group will gather emails, work orders, written policies and other forms of documentation from faculty, administration and staff in order to prepare and submit a written report of its findings prior to the May 5 Faculty Senate meeting. Interviews will also be conducted. The report may include recommendations for revisions to administrative policies related to the Dial Building closing, or other recommendations as the committee sees fit.

“I don’t think we are here to pin something on anybody,” Faculty Senate chair Tom Dooling advised the committee, “but to try and get an objective picture of what led to the closing.”

Dooling suggested that a monthly public forum would be a key way to collect information from people on campus. The group agreed to hold the meetings and Vela questioned how to obtain information from people who don’t want to present their knowledge publicly.

“I know there are people on campus who have materials or things they want to say that they don’t want to make public,” Vela said.

The committee decided to hold one-on-one interviews for such persons.

Vela said that Dr. Frank Trapp, who suffered from bronchitis and a chronic cough while working in the Dial Building, could be a good source of information.

“He is someone who feels he’s been injured by this process and I think he wants to be in a position where he can talk with us and give us information,” Vela said.

According to Vela, the public forums will allow university employees to vent their frustrations.

“My feeling is there are people who have gripes, complaints, feelings about this that they want to express and they may have information they want to convey and I think there ought to be some open forum for them to be able to convey that to us,” Vela said.

Vela has an objective view of his role, however.

“If I thought I had my mind made up about any of this, I wouldn’t have accepted the position,” he said.

Vela feels the main purpose of the committee is to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself.

“I’m hoping that we will get a clearer sense of exactly what happened,” Vela said. “We can have some kind of intervention and make sure it doesn’t occur again.”

Chancellor Allen Meadors is positive that the committee will find no evidence of mishandling of the mold problem in the Dial Building.

“They’ll find that the university could have done something different that would have helped in the misunderstanding surrounding this issue, which is almost always the case in hindsight, but I do not believe that any of our employees would ever intentionally mishandle a situation like this,” he said.

The first step for the committee is to consult with University Attorney Donna Gooden Payne and see what the correct legal procedures of the inquiry are.