Students and staff at Camosun College are relieved that no one was injured when a window fell off the second story of the Fisher building at Lansdowne campus on Monday, September 12.
Mona Jensen, a clerk at the Lansdowne bookstore, was working when she heard the window fall.
“Thank god nobody was hurt,” she says.
The window fell off the Fisher building after an instructor tried to open it. It landed in front of the cafeteria near the main doors of Fisher.
University transfer student and Lansdowne Education Council student rep Darragh Grove-White also happened to be near where the window fell.
“There was a big hunk of metal and broken glass all over the floor,” he says.
College staff soon had the area roped off and all of the windows on Fisher were bolted shut that evening until a safety assessment could be done. The windows have since been deemed safe and re-opened.
The window gave way due to deteriorating rivets that hold the hinges in place, according to the college’s physical resources department.
“We’ve replaced all the rivets with stainless steel screws so all the windows are now made safe. We’ve taken out the screws that kept the windows shut, and they’re all operational now,” says Ian Tol, acting director of physical resources.
Physical resources also checked the other buildings at the Lansdowne campus that had similar windows. The windows on the other buildings are newer and were found to be secure.
The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) is blaming the incident on a lack of maintenance funding. Camosun has less money to maintain its buildings after the government decreased the college’s capital allowance fund over a year ago.
“The government has taken about $1.2 million out of the capital fund from the college, and that’s just not acceptable,” says Michael Glover, CCSS student services coordinator. “The Young building is in desperate disrepair. Now a window has fallen off in a place that could have killed someone. We’re calling on the government to put funding back so we can keep the college from falling to pieces. It’s basic safety.”