Ice Storm Heroes at the University of Arkansas: Part IV

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth part of an ongoing series of stories about the university staff who worked through Ice Storm 2009. This and other installments may also be found at http://icestorm2009.uark.edu/

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas never really closes. After an historic ice storm classes were cancelled and university offices and business operations were closed for an unprecedented four days.

Approximately 4,500 students live on campus. Their needs didn’t stop for inclement weather.

Essential members of the university staff didn’t stop either: They overcame challenges and worked through the week to make sure the students were safe, warm, fed and housed. These men and women are among the real heroes of the Ice Storm of 2009.

The people with the prime responsibility for the safety and welfare of students who live on campus are the staff of University Housing. In addition to the students in the residence halls, housing staff are also responsible for students in several of the Greek houses and in the new Duncan Avenue apartments.

During and after the ice storm, they didn’t have to worry about power or heat in the residence halls. Most of the campus electrical and heating grid is underground and there was virtually no interruption of service. More good news: the dining halls were open and serving.

But for housing staff that’s just part of the job. Those who managed to get to campus Tuesday morning still had plenty of work to do.

For example, housing maintains a service center, taking calls 24/7, 365 days a week. Cody Davis is the supervisor.

“Basically any kind of problem, big or small, we get the initial call,” Davis said. “If a student was outside his or her hall and forgot the key, for example, we would handle that. During and after the storm we had a lot of calls from parents, concerned that their students were safe. We could connect them to someone who could find the student.”

Most of the service center’s staff are students who work part-time, and they don’t necessarily live on campus. Some couldn’t get to work and Davis had to fill in for them, but it didn’t happen that often. The center always had someone on duty to answer a call for help.

Housekeeping staff members were also busy. From Tuesday through Friday only about 30 percent of them made it to work.

“Their job is to keep the residence halls clean,” said associate housing director Linda Campbell. “That’s harder to do when the students are actually there all day, rather than in class or out somewhere. But the staff did a great job keeping the bathrooms, the rooms and the halls clean with such a limited crew. And they helped with extra jobs as well, whenever they were needed.”

Campbell, who is also in charge of the moving crew and the warehouse, understood how hard it was for her people to get to campus. She was stranded at her home in West Fork, but coordinated her staff by phone.

One of the tasks she helped organize was setting up cots and bedding for about 270 students who came to the residence halls seeking shelter after the power went out at their fraternity or sorority house, or at the Duncan Avenue apartments. Those buildings aren’t on the main campus power grid.

The department also provided about 20 cots and more bedding to the University Police office, where several officers took shelter from the storm, some with their children.

Housing’s maintenance staff worked with the utility companies to get the power restored, but particularly at Duncan Avenue it was tricky.

“They lost power several times during the week,” said assistant housing direct Reggie Houser. “They got the power back on one time and a little while later a truck hit a utility pole down the street and knocked them out again. And of course the SWEPCO people had moved on to other calls by then and it was a while before they could come back.”

Meanwhile, about half of the housing maintenance workers were on the job during the week, and their days often went as late as 11 p.m. All of the department’s supervisors managed to get to work, and they filled in wherever needed.

“They helped students get their cars out from under fallen tree limbs. They kept the sidewalks clear of ice and branches,” said Houser. “Things always break, even on good days. When something broke, they fixed it. Every one of them had their own problems at home – trees down, power out, no heat. But they wouldn’t let the job not get done.”

“One of our electricians – he slipped on the ice and hurt his shoulder. He had a doctor’s appointment at 3 in the afternoon, and was back to work an hour later.”

“Reggie knows this, because he was out there with them,” said Gary Hume, director of residential facilities. “He worked 58 hours in those four days. Tom Sluppick, assistant director in charge of maintenance was there, too. He and his staff never missed a beat.”

Inside the halls, resident assistants may have had the toughest job of all: keeping the students occupied.

Jonathan Carlsmith is in his second year as a resident assistant. The junior from Lincoln is responsible for 54 students on the sixth floor of Humphreys Hall.

“There was definitely some cabin fever,” he said. “Students are used to having weekends free, and making plans to do things. But it was kind of a shock to have four days during the week with no classes and really nothing to do.”

Part of the resident assistant’s job is to design programs, organize games and generally find things for the students to do in situations like this. Carlsmith said he got a good response from students, but by the third and fourth day “they were starting to get pretty, well, creative.

“They found all sorts of games to play with ice. There were football games in the hall. Things we wouldn’t normally allow – but they needed to burn energy, and everybody was staying in good spirits and getting to know each other better.”

Thursday, when classes were cancelled for the rest of the week, many of the students on Carlsmith’s floor decided to leave for the long weekend. That day, looking for something new to do, he got on Facebook and made a few calls to friends. By Friday morning he had organized 25 students from Humphreys and Yocum halls. They headed to Fayetteville’s Wilson Park to see who they could help.

“We didn’t know exactly where to go, but I saw a mailman,” Carlsmith said. “I figured he’d know the neighborhood, and have an idea who might need help.”

The mailman directed them to a few homes in the neighborhood. The students set to work cleaning yards, focusing on people who needed the help. They only had a few saws, but found they could clear a lot of the fallen wood using just their hands and gloves. They ended up clearing debris from five yards – three belonging to elderly people, two at the homes of university faculty.

“People were surprised. Crews had come around offering to clear their yards – but they wanted money. They were surprised we were doing it for free. They were very thankful; they brought us hot cocoa and organic apples. It was really wonderful.”

That evening Carlsmith took several of the students to volunteer at the community shelters at the Boys and Girls Club and Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. They served food, helped clean up and played basketball with the kids staying in the shelters. It made for a long day, Carlsmith said, but Saturday he and several others were back at the shelters, helping out again.

"My attitude in life is that I should always be purposeful and do things that embody a common purpose. This was a real opportunity for all students to do that. This ice storm really brought out the best in so many people, and as students it feels good to be a part of your community."