University Physical Plant Director Fired over LTTE

I'm sure many of you won't care about this, but I felt like I should post it anyway. Weigh in, if you like.

As an Arkansas Tech Alumni, this concerned me.

This LTTE was published in Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, by the ATU Physical Plant Director. I have since learned that he was fired for speaking out on this matter.

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Conditions unthinkable

When the Arkansas Tech University director of housing placed eight Asian students in two rooms without locks, I was astounded. The students are human beings and should not be housed in a construction zone.

About the time I thought the administrators could not stoop any lower, the president and board of trustees decided to move students into Critz Hall. Critz Hall was built in 1950 as a dormitory. In the early 1970 s, it became the home of the Arkansas Tech physical plant. The building has been used to store maintenance supplies for more than 30 years. Some of the supplies are paper products, cleaning fluids, adhesives, herbicides and pesticides.

In the past 30 years, have there been spills ? Were they cleaned up ? Yes, they were cleaned up, but there is still the possibility of residue. There is a definite odor in the air due to maintenance and custodial products. There is also asbestos that hasn’t been removed.

It has been well managed for a warehouse. If cleaned, would I sleep in a room where pesticides or herbicides have been stored ? Would I let my child or expect someone else to live and sleep in these rooms ? Of course not. I would not consider the thought.
HERMAN LUEBKER / Russellville
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...and a visit from OSHA, the Board of Health, et al., providing any of those entities are still operational six years into the Bush regime.

Any chance the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will do some investigative reporting and an expose?

Herman Luebker is a brave and honest man, and he may have just lost his pension along with his job. I hope he's able to find a good labor law lawyer who can take his case on contingency.

Hekate

There are a few issues here:

Security: Housing students in rooms without locks?
Health and Safety: students in rooms where even residues of toxic materials may sicken them. And definite presence of asbestos? And in a construction zone?
Overcrowding?: Are 8 students in 2 rooms standard operating procedure?
Creepiness: Is it relevant that the students are "just Asians"?

Being a conscientious, moral person can be pretty lonely and risky....

Thanks for bring this to our attention here. Keep us posted on how this develops.

every year because of their inability to do simple math.

How many beds do we have? Okay, subtract those students who are returning. Good. Now, that number is the number of housing applications you can accept for the next academic year.

Instead, they accept them all, leave it to figure it out later; cramming kids four to a room, wherever they can find an empty space (such as a building that is being renovated). They have even gone so far as to contract with local hotels and pay a fortune to house students.

Note to ATU administration: there are no prizes for allowing your student body to outgrow the University's resources.

This is all part of the issue to which Mr. Luebker wrote the LTTE. They are anticipating a housing overflow, so they're scurrying to get another place ready. Critz has been a maintenance building for nearly thirty years, and is not safe, even with renovations to house students. Because of its low-budget status, the ATU Physical Plant has often done a lot of its own work, rather than contracting it out, hence, they have more than just Pine-Sol in their building, there is some dangerous stuff contaminating Critz Hall.

I will post more as I know more.