University of Alberta students and staff displaced after Humanities Centre fire

Some students at the University of Alberta don’t know where they’ll be learning  — nor do their instructors know where such lessons will take place — when classes resume on Monday.

The Humanities Centre was hit by a fire last month and now, students and staff are learning the whole building will be closed for the semester.

Those who work and learn out of the centre will be forced to go elsewhere, in the aftermath of an electrical fire mid-December.

“It was a failed transformer that produced a lot of smoke and melted components around it,” said James Allen, vice president of facilities and operations at the University of Alberta.

Although it wasn’t a huge fire, the resulting air quality is now a health and safety risk.

“Really what it comes down to is, a lot of contamination made its way through the building. That is one of the largest challenges that we’re going to have to assess and clean and flush out that system, that’s the one that will potentially take us months to perform,” Allen said.

That’s led to the centre being closed for the entire winter semester.

“It was quite a shock, cause obviously you don’t want to hear something as devastating as a building being out of commission,” said Hussain Alhussainy, president of the Organization for Arts Students and Interdisciplinary Studies.

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“The humanities building is the heart of where art students gather and is a core piece of the arts identity … so it was sad to hear.”

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This has left students and staff with a lot of uncertainty, still waiting to hear where they will learn and teach in the next few months.

English and film studies professor Peter Sinnema says he only found out late Wednesday night.

“I’m frustrated to the point of anger, in fact, by the last-minute nature of the announcement,” Sinnema said.

He said he has been utilizing the building for nearly 40 years and now he’ll have to find a new normal. “I use my office on a daily basis as I come and go to classes and to carry out my own research.

“Now I’ve essentially been locked out of my office — as has everyone else in the building.”

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Sinnema also worries this is the spark that will mark the end of the line for the 1907s-era building.

“We’ve been hearing for a few years now that the building is going to be redesignated or torn down and one way or another we’re all going to be cleaned out within four or five years.

“It’s hard not to think that this might be the beginning of that permanent process of closure.”

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However, the university says it’s status quo to get the building back online as quickly as possible.

“Right now, the plan is to use that building as it was intended to use and that’s to support teaching, learning and to house the staff and the faculty. Nothing’s changed. There are no long-term plans to do anything else with Humanities Centre,” said Allen.

The school says they will provide students who have classes in the building this semester with updates through their online Bear Tracks portal.