By RYAN ROBINSON

Contributing Writer

One out of ten doctors recommended constantly inhaling mold to improve your health. He is now in the hospital with a severe fungal infection. Here at Piedmont, we are no strangers to our unfriendly campus fungus. Everyone, at one time or another, has managed to take a nice lung-full of the malicious microbes. While steps have been taken to rid our college of the affliction, is it enough to stop the cause, or just treat the symptom?

Veterans of the women’s dorm, Wallace, are no strangers to the sporadic spores. While the woes and worries have eased a bit since the previous year, its residents still have their issues. “It would take three or four days for my shirts to dry if I wanted to hang dry them,” reminisced Shelby Meyers, a Junior Theatre major, on her days living in the dank depths of the dorm. Last year, an inspector was sent through Wallace to check mold levels. As far as the residents were informed, mold was present, but, supposedly, it was not a large enough quantity to cause any medical concern. The humid situation in Wallace has been relieved a bit this year, but there is still a situation on the other side of campus. 

The Swanson Center is one of Piedmont’s many crown jewels, as well as being quite the selling point for the college. Now, though, it has become quite the smelling point. In the Center, there are two main performing spaces: the mainstage and the black box. The latter has recently been living up to its dreary name. The condition of the playing space has been rapidly deteriorating. The aroma has also been coming exponentially more rancid. When approaching the theatre, one must be prepared for the smell of stray cats and marshland. 

Mold has been an issue since my freshman year, and prior. The faculty of the department have been trying to keep up with the situation using small dehumidifiers, which help, but do little to solve anything. In the three years I have been involved with Piedmont’s theatre program, just recently have first steps been made by the college to combat the problem. The ceiling tiles, which were coated in the fungus, have been replaced. This has done nothing to solve neither the humidity nor the stench. Hopefully Piedmont will soon attempt to do more than just bandage a symptom, and instead treat the problem.