By On the second floor of the Fine Arts Building (FA4), while class was in session last semester, a ceiling tile fell 2 feet away, almost hitting 19-year-old Aldair Solis a Cal State Long Beach graphic design major.
“When it [ceiling tile] fell I was shocked,” Solis said. “It could have hit me on the head. I was thinking ‘why haven’t they fixed this?’”
Solis said that the loud impact from the ceiling tile was loud enough that everyone in the room heard it.
“The ceiling tiles have come close to hitting other people too,” Solis said.
This semester, Alexander Mohtashen, co-senator for Associated Students, Inc., expressed his concern for students who use the Fine Arts Building.
“Many painting and drawing rooms do not have proper ventilation,” Mohtashem said. “Panels are falling off the ceiling, computer wires are exposed and the buildings are not retrofitted for earthquakes.”
The issues remain because of inadequate funding, Mohtashem said.
“I think it’s absurd that a student who pays tuition would have to worry about classroom safety,” Mohtashem said.
Mohtashem has been talking to the dean of the College of the Arts, Cyrus Jeannette-Parker, to help draft a solution. He hopes there is a set agenda in place to take care of the problem in the future.
“I have reached out to deans, department chairs and facilities,” Mohtashem said. “We have been told not enough funds have been available to fix the maintenance in the art buildings.”
Hedy Lee, an ASI senator, is trying to come up with a couple solutions.
“We have the option to replace the ceiling tiles that fall and glue new ones, but that won’t work,” Lee said.
Lee said she is going to get in contact with the facilities manager and discuss fixing FA4. She said she was hoping to get a grant passed by the board of trusties but was denied.
“CSSA was trying to pass this [differed maintenance money] thing but the board of trusties said no,” Lee said.
She went on to say that the Board of Trustees wanted to invest in homes that have fire damage.
The biggest dilemma that persists in the art building is, the air conditioning has not been working for the past few years, Lee said.
“I think that’s the biggest issue,” Lee said. “I go around [campus], everybody says AC, AC, AC.”
Lee said she doesn’t expect the air conditioning problem to be fixed in the near future.
“It’s a couple million dollar project, it probably won’t come to works any time soon,” Lee said.
“When we had that heat wave, it was boiling in here. I had to bring my own fan and all they gave us is a box fan,” Ryan Sumiada, a 31-year-old graphic design and studio arts major, said.
