The office formerly used by Beth George, attorney for Student Legal Services, will now be used for extra office space and as a conference room. George will stay in her new office in the Senate building at 11 Baxter Blvd. The air quality of the office was tested on March 10 by Department of Facilities Management personnel. It was declared free of any contaminants, including carbon monoxide.
Andrea Thompson McCall, assistant dean of Student Life, is the administrator in charge of the Woodbury Campus Center in Portland. She said George’s former office has been tested and is now being used for swing office space and as a conference room. Swing office space is used by staff members who have an office on another campus and need a desk and phone to do work. “The report says, ‘no indication of air quality problems’.”
Raymond Bland, assistant director of maintenance, was one of the people who tested the office. The test was conducted on March 10 and the room was found free of contaminants. “Everything came up fine,” he said. “The possibility exists that [carbon monoxide] could be there on a temporary basis.” Bland said car exhaust could get into the building, for instance, during oil deliveries when trucks idle behind the campus center. “That’s a danger whenever you draw air from the outside. I mean, we have a highly trucked freeway right next to the campus, too.”
The office in question is a square, windowless room at the end of a narrow hallway. The hallway is in the back of the building, with offices across from George’s former room facing the Oakhurst driveway. In the corner of the ceiling, a vent quietly draws air. The air smells like that of a house that has had all its windows closed for a week.
Craig Hutchinson, vice president of Student and University Life, used the George’s former office for five years before George moved in. He said he did not experience any air-quality problems there. “The nature of my existence in that room was much different,” he said. “I worked an hour or two max with the door open.”
Contacted at her new office, George downplayed health concerns in her decision to move her office. “It’s really not that big a deal,” she said of the move. “I didn’t have any health effects, but it was uncomfortable,” she said. “I would get a scratchy throat and dry eyes after a while.” Unlike Hutchinson, George worked with her door closed for sustained periods of time. The room began to feel “claustrophobic” with even one guest, George said.
Additionally, George did smell car exhaust at intervals. “There was a definite difference if there was a car idling outside.” Adding to George’s concerns was the fact that students passed administrative offices to reach her. George’s job includes giving confidential legal advice to students. “I think it’s good to have my office away from administration offices,” she said. “Everybody acted professionally and wonderfully, but I was right next to the Dean’s office.” That proximity could and did make some students uncomfortable, George said.
George said she talked to members of the Student Senate and the Dean’s office about her concerns. When she learned that there was space in the Student Senate building on 11 Baxter Blvd., she asked for and was granted the new room, where George says she is much happier.