On Tuesday, Feb. 16, at about 4:45 a.m., a sprinkler pipe broke at Greenfield Community College just outside the President’s Conference Room on the second floor of the Core Building.
A significant amount of water began to flood the second floor hallway, the president’s office and the Mac lab in the South. The water made its way down to the first floor into the admissions, registrar, financial aid and bursars areas. The Sloan Theatre was also impacted. Because of the quick response of Greenfield, Shelburne, Turners, Deerfield and Bernardston fire departments and all of the GCC building and grounds crews the damage was contained. Were it not for their quick and efficient response, our damage would have been far more significant. In short order, our IT staff were also on campus moving folks into temporary work areas.
I cannot thank the firefighters of our community and GCC’s employees enough for being so responsive to the moment. I also want to express my appreciation to all whose work spaces were impacted for their flexibility and for their efforts to keep serving students. The next day, two students entered the temporary financial aid work space. “Can I help you?” asked our director of financial aid. “No,” said the students. “We just stopped by to see if you all are doing OK.”
Stuff happens. It is good to know that when it does the first responders in our community and GCC students, faculty and staff responds to the needs of this community’s college with such passion and efficiency.
Bob Pura
president
Greenfield Community College