Students return to App State building amidst ongoing renovations

Safety concerns are being raised about a multimillion dollar construction project at Appalachian State University.

Renovations are underway at Wey Hall, which houses the art department. But the bottom floor of the building is still in use, and students and have complained about the construction on the floors above them.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty learned last week, the school closed Wey Hall after a piece of concrete fell into an office area. Students had also reported cracks in ceiling tiles.

Fortunately, it happened over spring break and no one was hurt. However, App State reopened Wey Hall on Monday morning after undergoing “multiple independent inspections.”

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Lauren Borer is an art student. She said she was in the building last week when the concrete fell.

“The neighboring professor came over with a ladder and removed a ceiling tile, and that’s when he pulled out a cement core,” she said.

The construction is part of a $24 million dollar project to renovate the hall, which was first built back in 1976.

The university said as part of reopening the building Monday, construction workers will no longer be drilling or doing other major infrastructure projects until the end of the semester. There will also be weekly safety reviews.

App State also said concrete debris has been removed from the ceiling above the students.

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Faherty spoke with several students about the work being done and their concerns.

“Jackhammer and drilling, so while we’re trying to do our work, sometimes we can’t even hear the professor talk to us or tell us stuff,” student Ashlynd Scavotto said. “The walls are shaking when they’re demolishing the top floor. Debris and dust has fallen from the ceiling. The ventilation has got cut off.”

Scavotto said she and other students have signed a petition about the work on the floors above them. Some of the students believe they should receive some of their tuition back, too.

“Safe environment. That should be the basis,” Borer said. “Expectation when you go to college and that you spend thousands of dollars, that you’re going to be safe.”

It’s important to note that at the start of the project, the university relocated students and some of the faculty to an old dorm on campus.

By lunchtime Monday, more than 1,100 people had signed the petition.

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