The UWM Cambridge Commons CO leak

     This past spring semester, the UWM council officially failed to protect the wellbeing of students. To be more specific about what happened, on 1 March 2022, our own Cambridge Commons was experiencing a leak of Carbon Monoxide and was ordering to evacuate all residents.

Except this is just a basic descriptor of the event that unfolded on that night.

The consequences

     While it is certainly true that there were students evacuating, the time it took to both announce the operation was severely lagged compared to when it was finally conducted for students to file out of the complex.

As result, approximately 17 students went to the hospital, and we are ever so thankful that none of them was a fatality.

This begs the question on every Cambridge resident’s mind: why exactly did it take so long to issue an evacuation for something as lethal as a carbon monoxide leak?

The answer is simply because of University incompetence. It stems specifically from the direction of UWM’s own Chancellor Mark Mone.

Because of his oversight, we went through all of the severe malpractice and unpreparedness no campus, or any group of people, frankly, should ever have to be subjected to.  

Some testimony

One student, who will remain unnamed, came to us to report on his own a piece of personal testimony; an eyewitness account:

“I was one of the first people to evacuate. From recalling, I was in my dorm when I started to feel nauseous, which started to make my anxiety worse.

I left while it was briefly forming to do some work in one of the cubicles on the ground floor when I noticed two police officers standing by the front desk.

Curious, I walked over to ask them what was going on, and they told me that there might be a Carbon Monoxide leak but that everything seemed fine for now. Immediately as I turn to walk away from them and sit back down for more work, I overhear my RA say “Yeah, there’s a CO leak. Everyone needs to evacuate”.

I grab what I have with me, tell my buddy in the cubicle opposite of mine we need to leave, and we wait about 12 plus minutes before everyone else came pouring out.

I did not get the impression that the police did a competent job, but I also have suspicion that the fire department didact fast enough either”.

Reasons behind the malpractice

     Now, it is a miracle that this anonymous student’s firsthand account was so able to describe what we have reported here. However, it begs another question: how exactly did it take such a significant gap of time for the rest of the student body to evacuate the complex?

According to what students and staff have said, there was a complete lack of Co detectors present within the building.

The initial notification of a leak reportedly came from an ice cream machine in the lobby’s kitchen area. Upon further examination of the building regulations, it says that the building was legally exempt from implementing the detectors.

Obviously, this left the complex woefully unprepared for an event that had the potential to end lives.

Students have since been demanding that any gaps within Cambridge Common’s safety protocols go through adjustments immediately.

This debacle over the leak has proven very clearly to have violated the trust and safety of the body.     

Bottom line

The fact that Chancellor Mone did not investigate this absence of common safety provisions is beyond infuriating, as it left the complex and student body bare and exposed to dangerous, life-threatening chemicals that should have been dealt with upon the building’s construction.

Gold Card credits are nowhere near enough to repair what, to some, has been a life-threatening scare.

We are demanding fordetectors inside Cambridge Commons immediately, regardless of if the building code’s status.

As well as more direct transparency from the UWM executive board; one that does not put up a defensive shield when addressing a crisis to its students.

Although this is not the first time Chancellor Mone has shirked responsibility and safety of the student body, it should very well be the last time he does so.

Otherwise, we will be prone to dangerous elements that should never appear on the UWM campus.