BREAKING: Potential Gas Leak in Pullen Hall

By: Katie Epps and Kate Sine

At about 3:40 PM, an alarm began to ring in Pullen Hall. According to Donna Yoder, who had been evacuated from the building, there was an odor of natural gas in the building for the second time today.

The first time the alarms went off was approximately an hour before. The inhabitants of the building were told to leave and were reportedly outside for approximately 30 minutes.

The second time the emergency responders were called, they intended to test for a potential natural gas leak in the building.

According to an emergency responder in one of the fire trucks, they responded to a call of natural gas odor in the building. The assistant fire chief, Joe Hoffman, confirmed and said that as of yet, "we haven't found a trace of it, it's more of a precautionary measure to be sure."

Wray Blair, one of the employees in Pullen, said the responders came to test for natural gas, "and the next thing we know they told us to leave."

Ambulances were dispatched as protocol demands of the fire station. Frostburg Company 18 and Command Unit 16 were on the scene.

Firefighters could be seen at the building testing the HVAC units for a potential leak.

PLC and Sustainability in Uganda

 On April 20, 2016, FSU’s annual day of learning on sustainability and climate awareness, called Focus Frostburg took place. The event is free and open to the entire Frostburg, MD community.

The President’s Leadership Circle held a presentation called “Sustainability in Uganda” in the Atkinson room. PLC consists of twelve exceptional student leaders who are offered shadowing opportunities with FSU’s President and are exposed to Global experiential learning.

PLC members India Lacey and Aimee Petrides shared of their experiences in Uganda. They traveled to Uganda to help out at Pagwaya Primary School and teamed up with Water School Uganda, which helps communities around the world with sustainable water solutions.

“We volunteered at a school there, we got to interact with kids. We taught them how to sanitize water and about personal hygiene,” Lacey said.

The SODIS method, Solar disinfection, is a way of disinfecting drinking water while using the UV light from the sun and infrared (IR) rays and clear PET bottles. PLC members used this method to help create safe water to be used by the people of Uganda.

There are four steps needed to ensure the SODIS method is carried out appropriately. The first step is to fetch water from The Nile River.

“The men and women are walking with no shoes. It’s just crazy to imagine them walking like this everyday,” Lacey said. Although it is a great feeling to help, PLC believes it is a sobering experience to see what the people of Uganda must go through daily.

The second step is to collect a clear PET water bottle and fill it with water from the Nile. Next, the filled water bottle is placed on an elevated surface under the sun. It is then left out for a minimum of six hours.

After these steps are complete the citizens are able to utilitize their new clean water. “The SODIS method helps them clean the water so that they are able to eat,” Petrides said.

In addition to introducing the SODIS method, PLC members helped to build “Tippy-Taps” as well. They are outdoor “sinks” made from local sustainable resources such as fishing wire and sticks. This convenient tool only takes thirty minutes to build.

“It’s clear that we really do make a connection with these people,” Lacey said. PLC has visited Uganda twice and intends on traveling there the following year with the new PLC team.

  

http://www.frostburg.edu/clife/leadership/presidents-leadership-circle-plc/

Art 207 Participates in 2016 Earth Day

Every year on April 22 people gather to celebrate and give thanks to the environment know as, Earth Day. Frostburg State University has set up activities to celebrate this day involving some of the campus’ organizations the week of April 18^th.

Along with student organizations, one class in particular decided to participate in the Earth Day activities by educating students, faculty and staff about trees. Graphic Design-Art 207 has been working on a project leading up to the week of Earth Day. This project involved students finding a tree on campus and researching facts. “The copy of your poster is both specified and written by you incorporating your tree research” quoted Ms. Dodge, such as its Latin name, origin, length of survival and one previously unknown interesting fact.

These students then combined the skills required to create a photo-shop document such as “fonts: arial black, regular, Helvetica black, for example”, said Ms. Dodge, as well as taking the knowledge about the trees and putting together a page full of information describing the various trees on campus. For example, my tree was the Eastern White Pine Tree. Its Latin name is Pinus Strobus. Originally born in the 18^th century, this tree’s can live anywhere between 80-100 years and in some rare cases even more.

“You will be tying your grommeted poster to your tree, per demo.” After the document was created students took their printed posters and the next step was to tie the poster around the previously selected tree. These trees all throughout campus now have their information tied on them so any student walking by will be informed and will be able to appreciate all that they provide.

Ameyu Ayana is a sophomore at FSU and had a few words to say about the posters she saw from Art 207’s Earth Day Project. “I noticed them as I was walking through campus and it caught my attention I decided to read what it was. I thought it was very nice that students were bringing awareness to the trees especially since this is the week of Earth Day. I appreciated it.”

Ms. Dodge is the graphic design professor. The presentation is titled Earth Day Project. The presenters for the project was the entire Tuesday/Thursday class for Art 207. For more information about Frostburg State University’s involvement in Earth Day you can visit here: http://www.frostburg.edu/home/news/university-news-portal/fsu-announces-earth-day-activities/

Below is a picture of my Earth Day Project: The Eastern White Pine Tree.