On Friday, February 1st at 11:05 a.m. an SXU Alert text message and email was sent out to the students and staff of Saint Xavier University.
The message was pertaining to reports about an odor of natural gas that was located near the residence hall of Pacelli. The alert explained the gas company was on campus investigating , and there were no safety concerns at the time.
To take precautions, the SXU staff contacted the gas company, Peoples Gas, and had them come to campus to help investigate and locate where the odor was coming from, to discover if there was any danger to the students.
“After some investigation with our engineering staff, a small leak was detected in one of the mechanical rooms inside Pacelli Hall. With the assistance of People’s Gas, our SXU engineer completed the repair and resolved the gas leak issue at that time,” said Director of Facilities Peter Skach.
During the week, the cause of the gas leak was detected to be the weather, since temperatures had gotten extremely low and then rose back up. Chicago was colder than Alaska, Antarctica, and the North Pole at one point during the week. These extreme weather conditions were due to the Polar Vortex that hit the Midwest.
Some students wondered if the extremely low weather conditions that happened during the week had anything to do with the cause of the leak, but it was confirmed that the low temperatures did not have any contribution.
When asked about the gas leak, resident Celeste Montenegro said, “I didn’t even know there was a leak. Like I got the alert, but I went in and out of the building and no one stopped me or made a big deal. I’m not sure how serious it was. We all ignored it.”
Daniela Ojeda, another resident in a different residence hall said, “I was not even aware there was a gas leak. Where was the gas leak? And if there was a gas leak why wasn’t I aware of it? How were the people without access to the internet [or] were stuck in class supposed to know about the gas leak?”
Even though an SXU alert text message and email were sent out to the staff and students, many students were unaware of when and where the gas leak took place.
“I feel like maybe if something happens during class, the teachers should have to announce it, just to keep the students on campus and off campus informed on what is happening here at SXU,” said Daniela.
The leak was fixed the same afternoon that it was detected, and the cause of the leak is unknown. Students and staff were able to go about their day without being interrupted due to no immediate danger or concern of the gas leak. No damage was done to Pacelli Hall, nor any of the campus, and no evacuation of the building was needed for the leak.
Kylee Rus
News Reporter