There was a significant leak in Old Main on Feb. 12, which led to an unexpected disturbance in what normally would have been a regular weekday. Accounts from students present in the building during the incident provided some insight into what exactly the situation looked like. 

Logan Samuelson ’26 was in room 030 for the course “Ecology, Justice, and Christianity,” which was a classroom that had been directly affected by it. The leak had started around 1:00 p.m., and it was not long before Facilities turned off the building’s water in response. However, the electricity in the classroom had been impacted, and the class had to move to a separate classroom on the second floor for the rest of the period. 

During the flood, Samuelson called Public Safety and afterwards left to find the source. He discovered that it was an overflowing urinal on the third floor. There had been a fair amount of water on the floor, and the water flowed through the ceiling of the room below into a professor’s office. 

“The water was a yellowish color and had a bad odor,” Samuelson said in an email interview with The Olaf Messenger. “We were told to avoid touching it or move damaged items from the professor’s office because of potential contamination.”

The flood, although significant, did not affect the whole building. Libi Ackerman ’29 was in room 020 for “America After 1865,” and her classroom had remained unaffected despite the proximity to 030. 

Additionally, although the source of the flood was on the third floor, the third floor itself seemed to have remained largely unaffected compared to the lower floors. Jonah Hoch ’29 was in Associate Professor of Religion Jamie Schillinger’s office at the time of the incident, which was right next to the source. In a text interview with The Olaf Messenger, Hoch said he noticed an odor, but had not seen any actual flooding until he had been in a different part of the building. 

Luckily, the flood does not seem to have greatly impacted the state of the building, and classes have continued without further incident. Samuelson said that when he had class in room 030 at a later date, the odor had mostly disappeared. The only remaining effect in the room was that a ceiling tile they had moved to help funnel the water was missing.