After reading last week’s article about the renovations about the renovations Sohre and Pittman have undergone I must admit that I found myself feeling acutely disappointed. No, it wasn’t the way it was written, or the fact that our first-year dorms now have carpeting and fancy elevators. All of those things are great. What disappointed me so was that although Physical Plant managers were interviewed for the story, it was never mentioned that part of the construction project was to remove asbestos from the buildings. It seems to me that at a minimum, our valued students and alumni should be informed of this serious risk to their health. Since that seems out of the question (especially with our current administration being both incredibly secretive and seemingly obsessed with public relations) at least those Physical Plant employees that were interviewed for The Weekly story could have mentioned the fact that decades of Gustavus students have been living with cancer causing toxins in their dorm rooms. To not do so is, in my opinion, an attempt at some sort of ‘cover up’.

Evan Curtin ‘10